Halloweens of Yore

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays.

One of my favorite things about Halloween as a child was the decor. I remember the year that we made cheesecloth ghosts that we hung up from the beams in the ceiling of our family room that year and every year since then. (When I was home at least. Does Mutti still hang up the ghosts?) And we had a Happy Halloween banner-type thing that hung across the mantle. There were cobwebs, I think, and spiders. There was a really scary green witch face with all sorts of warts that we would hang up between the family room and the kitchen. And there was also a life-size Elvira that sometimes went on the front door. The best was the witch that Grandma Maggie made. (When I was quite a bit older, the parents started putting sheet-ghosts outdoors as well, which many little children still love.)

With all this decor add a scary Haunted House tape that we would then play over the stereo system. While this played, our sister friends Ruthie and Janie, my sister, and I would huddle together under a card table with a sheet over it and scare ourselves silly. At some point we got too big to all fit under the card table, and the tape got more silly than scary, but we still listened to it as I recall. We would also play this tape outside on Halloween night to scare trick or treaters.

Of course there was the pumpkin carving, which was always fun. And as I recall, there was often a meal on Halloween day that had appropriate Halloween colors. There were of course also traditional movies that we watched around Halloween time or on the day itself: Young Frankenstein, The Worst Witch, Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin, Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, and some others that I don't remember the names of.

At our elementary school on Halloween, there was always a parade around the block in our costumes. I specifically remember one year when my mom brought our dog to see us, and I was super excited to see him with her. I wonder what he thought of it all. My niece and nephew just participated in this parade at the same elementary school, so the tradition is still alive and well.

This brings me to perhaps the best part: the costumes and the trick or treating itself. The candy was of course a big part of Halloween and I remember hoarding that candy for months. I still remember one time when the dog got into sister's stash once. She was not amused. And apparently he liked caramel. Left the wrapper and everything.

There were traditional places to visit in our neighborhood on Halloween night: Witch Hazel's of course, and the Talking Pumpkin. The Talking Pumpkin really talked! And Witch Hazel would actually make you do tricks and was just a little bit scary. I also loved the smell of burning pumpkins that lingered in the air, and it was always fun to show off your costume.

As I recall, we always had homemade costumes. This is why I need to learn how to sew at some point and get a sewing machine, because I want to do the same for my kids someday. Anyway, there are some costumes that I will leave out of the following list because I can't remember them, and it might not be in the right order. But, here are all of the costumes that I remember wearing, and believe me, they were all precipitated by much thought on my part. The costume was, after all, a huge deal!

Dumbo. I think this might even be the first costume I remember. I loved that movie and the show on the Disney Channel, so elephant I had to be. Complete with big ears and long trunk.

The Little Mermaid / Ariel. Of course.

Jasmine (from Aladdin). I understand that my niece wore the same costume this year.

Tasha Yar. Yep, in third grade I was a major Trekkie. You'll understand how upset I was when she got bumped off in the show. Did they have to kill her? She could have just moved or something...

A 20s Flapper. House of Elliott days.

A Gypsy. In eighth grade. The last time I went trick or treating. Ranks high up on the list of worst Halloweens ever: we had just decided we were done for the night and turned to walk home when a much older teenage boy mugged us for our candy. It was rather disturbing.

The Mask of the Red Death. Yes, from Edgar Allen Poe. It was for my first Halloween party in ninth grade, I think. No one recognized me. It was that good. Janie (Lance's artistic daughter who's an illustration major now) did my makeup, and I had an eerie dark robe with it. It was by far the scariest costume I ever wore. (So scary that Sarah had a roommate who asked her to take down the picture of me because she thought it was Satanic.)

Hungarian Peasant. As a freshman in college, I had my own little Halloween party, and I wore my Hungarian garb.

If anyone can remember what my other costumes from childhood were, feel free to comment. I know there were more.

One of my best Halloween memories is of 1989 when HJ's Berlin exchange student was there. They dressed up as girls (a specialty of my brother's) and went out on the town. They even had balloons. As I recall the Germans were really into the whole experience and had a great time.

Since my eighth grade candy mugging, I've had by far more bad Halloweens than good ones. Mostly it's because I was too busy with school to do much with Halloween, from high school to college to grad school. Other times it's been because I innocently expect trick or treaters and then get none or get home too late for them. A couple times it's been because I was sick. That's what happened this year on the day of Halloween. After cooking a large breakfast for my Seminary kids, I went back to bed because I wasn't feeling that great, and sure enough when I finally woke up again at 1 pm, I had a cold. Oh well. We did go to a party in Linus's program, but being sick didn't make it very fun for me, and we didn't stay very long.

But, the night before I did go trick or treating with some friends. I didn't dress up, and they didn't either. But I got to push a stroller with a baby dressed up in a hot-dog sack. And we herded the rest of their children from door to door. Now that was fun. We had everything from a five-year-old Dementor to Anakin Skywalker to a flower and a princess to a cowboy and a Thomas the train engine. And of course a Buckeye cheerleader. And it was great to watch them all having so much fun like I used to as a little girl. And so, even if it was on the 30th, I did have a bit of Halloween magic this year.

What are your Halloween memories?