trick or treat

Halloween night on Brookside Avenue was magical.  Anytime a kid can walk out into the dark of night, whether it is to catch fireflies or to gaze into the starry sky,  there is a wonderful spookiness to it all.  But the best night ever for walking around in the dark has got to be on October 31--halloween night.  If trick or treating occurred during a weekday it was nearly impossible to concentrate during the day at school.  There was a party at school, of course, but just thinking of the candy and other goodies that we would receive that evening caused a very sweet distraction in the classroom.  Oh, look!!  It's Robin Hood, Elvis, a French Foreign Legionnaire, a gypsy woman and even red riding hood.

I grew up back in the day when candy bars were full size,  the big bowl of candy corn was dipped into by the neighborhood kids (barehanded),  popcorn balls and caramel apples were served on hugh platters (unwrapped) and kids were invited into the homes to pick from a wide assortment of goodies from cupcakes to candy.  Everyone knew each other and the adults knew where all the kids on the block lived.  There were so many kids living on my block that there was no need to travel far for that once a year haul of sugared goodies.  And, always, ALWAYS, we brought our UNICEF cans with us. Every house we visited had a large bowl of pennies to scoop up and place in our containers.  When we got home we put our Unicef cans on the kitchen counter and then went into the living room and emptied out our baskets in order to inspect our haul.  Our mom let us keep it all in our rooms and she was actually glad when we consumed everything over the next few days.  Then it was done.  No dragging out the candy rush.  We still had to eat supper each night--full tummy or not.  Rules are rules.  And, fun is fun.  That was halloween night on Brookside Avenue and it was one of the best nights of the year.