Yesterday was Halloween. Halloween was always a fun time for me when I was a kid. I used to start trick or treating as early as I could, and go as late as my parents would alllow. We never trick or treated in our own neighborhood, though. We weren’t in the richest part of town, and pennies and tootsie rolls were perhaps the best we could have hoped for.
Luckily, my mother was friends with a woman who lived in a wealthy suburb full of doctors and lawyers. When one out of three houses is giving away full-size candy bars, you know you’ve hit the jackpot. Even back then, I organized and rationed my candy. I had a desk in my room, and I neatly stacked the candy bars in the top drawer, put the hard candies in the second drawer, and the chewy candies and gum in the third drawer. I easily had enough to last me well into the next year. By the time the next Halloween rolled around, I still had one or two Blow Pops sitting in that drawer.
Our costumes were never store-bought, they were always made up of objects found around the house. We didn’t have a lot of money, but we did have a big family, and as consequence, could find what we needed for a costume idea.
One year, an old karate gi was my Karate Kid costume. Another, a pair of overalls, tool belt, and hard hat were my construction worker. An old smock, beret, and palette made of cardboard made my artist costume. In the end, maybe they weren’t the most creative costumes, but definitely looked better than the plastic superman and spiderman costumes out there.
I haven’t trick or treated since I was fourteen, and haven’t even SEEN a trick or treater in three years. The suburbs have approved trick or treating hours, which end before I get home. The city, as I found out last night, was much different.
I pulled off of the freeway at about 7:00pm, making pretty good time as most people left work early to take their children out. And when I did, I was shocked to see the normally empty streets covered in costumed people. They were everywhere. When I finally parked, I had to wade through the crowds of children just to get to my apartment, then had to motion them aside so I could open the door. I could hear them outside for several hours afterwards.
I think I mentioned it before, but the city seems much more alive than the suburbs, for better or worse.
We also managed to blow a fuse last night. Zai was cooking dinner and had some green beans in the microwave, which proved to be a bit much for the circuit. Apparently the entire apartment save for my study is on the same circuit. So at least my computer stayed on. The circuit box is in the basement, so only the store owner downstairs had the key. We ended up eating what was cooked of our dinner by candlelight.
I could think of worse things to do. And once the neighbors got back from taking their kids trick or treating, they flipped the circuit breakers and we had power again.
All in all, a pretty good evening.
Zel-kun out.
Zaida | 01-Nov-07 at 9:41 am | Permalink
It was certainly the most interesting Halloween I had in a while
=)
Zaida | 01-Nov-07 at 9:48 am | Permalink
oh yeah, and on another note, I was lucky my grandma was handy with a sewing machine when i was a kid. She made me my Sailor Mars costume when I was 13 and obsessed with Sailor Moon. I got creative in my own way too. When I was 15, I had this red chinese style shirt, so I wore it with black pants, dyed my hair red and put it in a pigtail, and went as girl-type Ranma! Of course, no one back then knew that.
Sabrejack | 01-Nov-07 at 11:43 am | Permalink
My mom made costumes for us too. I didn’t trick or treat very often because for the majority of my childhood, I was a Jehovah’s Witness, which of course didn’t celebrate. Instead, we would go to my grandparents’ house, turn off the porch light, and hide when some trick-or-treaters would come up and knock on the door despite our signal. I remember peeking out the window at them, looking at their costumes, and wondering what it was like. I was certain it had to be the most fun thing ever created on this planet.
Later, when we were finally free of the Witnesses, my mom would make all kinds of interesting getups. She was handy with a sewing machine, and I recall one of my brothers going as a full home-made ninja turtle, which actually looked pretty good. I also used my old karate gi, but as a Ryu costume (from Street Fighter.) There were a couple of other half-assed costumes besides that that I either don’t recall or won’t admit to, but for the majority, Halloween was something I simply missed out on. It’s not the only holiday the Witnesses ruined for me during my childhood, either.
David N. Scott | 01-Nov-07 at 8:39 pm | Permalink
Ah, the Witnesses. So very fundamentalist. That is, so very fundamentalist to their own particular translation of the Greek which most translators scratch their heads at. But anyway…
My parents were very anti-Halloween for a few years, but our church always gave out candy and had costumes anyway, so it wasn’t that interesting. Later, when they burned out on faith post their financial collapse, we trick or treated.
I’m pretty sure they re-got into the faith at some point when I would have Trick or Treated, but I was into the Halloween Partying phase by then, so don’t remember any clashes.
Nowadays my dad’s sort of a misanthrope and just think’s it’s inherently unfair for people to come to his house and ask for candy. So, he hides out.
My parents always bought costumes, though. Don’t think it occured to them to do otherwise, even when it might’ve been a Good Thing.
Our neighborhood isn’t huge on Halloween. Sort of an Asian/Middle-eastern/middle aged couple sort of group that just isn’t too into holidays. We cross over to the next one over and it’s a huge production there, so that’s okay.
Things seemed smaller this year. A lot of houses with people gone. Probably people in affected industries.