Your Halloween Memories (retiree, friend, 10 year old, pregnant)

[otterhere]

A home-made costume (Mom was an amazing seamstress, and dad was great at crafting props), a HUGE shopping-sized Trick-or-Treat bag, and going all over our neighborhood with the gang in the dark regardless of the weather, eating candy along the way, going home to dump it when it got too heavy, then going back out again! Sorting through it like treasure with our friends, trading what we didn't like for what we did, when it was all over. I feel so sorry for kids today being chauffered from neighborhood to neighborhood or with their little plastic pumpkin pails at sad Trunk-or-Treat daytime events, x-rayed candy, and parents standing over them! I'm glad I was a kid when I was.

[wp169]

Too many wonderful Halloween memories to list, but my most favorite was shopping for clothes to make original costumes for my mom to wear at her senior group party. Every year she had a different costume, but at the last party she attended she won a prize for best costume (sorceress), I was so proud of her! I have several of her Halloween photos over the years hung up on my walls, she passed last December, so this is the first Halloween (and my Oct. birthday) I won't be seeing her.

[Disgustedman]

Originally Posted by Lodestar

A favorite candy you liked to get? A costume you wore? A tradition your family had? A school memory?

A fun and funny time or a disaster. Pranks you played.

What are your memories?

I'm maybe 11. Out by myself, house had porch light on. Rules being that I understand approach and ring. So I did and the door opened. Blackness, then a glowing light green, was Frankensteins monster!

I stood frozen in terror, I couldn't even squeak "Trick or Treat" he dropped a candy bar into my sack. Waved then the door closed and I stumbled off the porch home. I am still surprised to this day I didn't unload into my pants.

I had done barely 35 houses of the neighborhood and called it quits. I only had 1/4 what my sisters got, Mom thought I was sick, but said nothing.

I didn't do it anymore after that.

[in_newengland]

Never liked Halloween very much. Worst one was when I finally got to dress up like a princess in one of my mother's old evening gowns. With the high heels, long dress, and a mask, I couldn't really see or navigate that well so while standing on the steps singing out, "Trick or Treat" I stepped to one side and accidentally fell right into the shrubbery.

At least I didn't spill my bag of candy.

[pathrunner]

For years I wore my sexiest gypsy belly dance costume with all the coins on it and handed out candy at the door. I'm lazy! Part of me wishes I were into the Halloween craze every year. Other times I'm glad I'm not. Mostly, it's just not my style.

[Manigault]

I can remember at one woman's house where we were offered a 'witches brew' which I realize now just had ginger. In '57 my mom costumed me as Zorro, with a beret -- so I was a French Zorro! Halloween was a night of fun, which became a night of mischief as we got older. The water balloons and eggs used to fly!

But since I was in parochial school, we always got the next day off from school so Halloween was a great night.

[Bungalove]

I don't remember any specific costumes I wore (heck, those times were more than 60 years ago!), but I do remember them having either the cheap plastic masks or the cheesy, flimsy fabric. If you breathed through the fabric for several hours it always ended up a soggy mess on your face. I loved trick-or-treating in a group with my friends through the neighborhood. We lived in an area with masses of row homes, so you could hit a huge number of homes in a couple of hours. I usually ended up with enough candy to last almost until Christmas, especially as my Mom rationed it out pretty strictly.

[Roselvr]

The only reason I liked Halloween was for the candy. I don't remember being that into dressing up because I can remember many years where a few of us were bums because it was an easy costume to make.

My kids loved dressing, going out, getting candy. I've made them a few costumes, wish I knew where they went.

Up until June when we moved, I had every costume my daughter wore from age 5 on. I had a few of my son's. I also saved all of my grandson's costumes but cleaned most of it out when we moved, especially my grandson's,

[upnorthretiree]

For several years I was a Dutch girl, wearing my mother’s girlhood Tulip Festival outfit. When I was around 8, my folks gave in to my begging and pleading and bought me a pair of wooden shoes from Holland, MI, to complete my costume. On Halloween, it took me about five minutes to realize how difficult those shoes were to walk in. My one-year older brother was halfway down the second block and I had only gotten to three houses. Greed won over authenticity; I hobbled home, changed them out for tennis shoes, and was off and running.

[jean_ji]

I was 6 when and my older brother made my costume one year. It was a short board with a sheet over the board with a coffee can on top of the sheet as a head. The can was wrapped with cloth that my brother painted a Frankenstein face on. He was 10.

The sheet covered the board which looked like shoulders. The board was on top of my head and strapped (using one of Dad’s old belts) under my chin. There were two eye holes cut out in the sheet for me to see. Only a 10 year old would think this could possibly work.

I remember running across a bumpy field as a short cut between houses. The costume was top-heavy, unwieldy and slid around on my head as I ran with the sheet trying to trip me. I ran as fast as I could with that get-up on, afraid it would come off and even more afraid I’d be left behind in the dark if I didn’t keep up! Happy Halloween!