Community Chat

[Goodie2shoes]

Thanks for such great responses ! I read every one and remember how we looked forward to going Trick or Treating. My mom got such a kick out of getting 5 kids ready and off to trick or treat. We had candy for weeks ! it was a fun time.  

[Enufstuff]

@Goodie2shoes   As a child, I always loved Halloween, getting dressed up in a costume and going Trick or Treating in the neighborhood.

 Most of my costumes were things just put together at home, a ghost, gypsy or hobo.

 I think that I was ten years old, when I got my first store bought costume. It was a black cat costume and I was so looking forward to wearing it. Unfortunately, I got the mumps and could not go Trick or Treating on Halloween. My younger brother took my Trick or Treat bag for me and told the neighbors that I was  sick, so I still got my candy. He was so sweet to do that for me.

 My five children loved Halloween and Trick or Treating in the neighborhood. I had all kinds of masks, wigs, hats and clothes in our Halloween trunk. I made black  capes that were used for different costumes. The kids mostly created their own costumes from what we had.

 In the 70s, before there was the plethora of Halloween

decor that you see today, I created a haunted house and invited

the neighbor kids in.  I made most of the decorations, ghosts,

spider webs, a stuffed life size devil figure with red glowing eyes (from a Lite Brite toy), a stuffed life size Frankenstein figure on my dining room table. I did have a store bought lifesize skeleton in  a closet and store bought spiders on my crepe paper spider webs.

 I bought a haunted house record (45) and put stereo speakers in the open windows. I put an invitation flyer on the window of our corner variety store.

 We had about 100 kids show up. Parents would bring their children and then tell their friends to come.

  I dressed as a witch and gave each guest a little cup of Witch's

Brew ( Hawaiian Punch). I guided them through each room and when they saw Frankenstein, I had two little dishes that held his brain(a wet sponge) and his eyeballs (two peeled grapes). If they were brave enough, they could touch them.

  There were no plastic eyeballs being sold back then, so I had to improvise.

  As they left the back door, they got their treats. I gave them little bags of potato chips.

  The kids loved it so much, we did it again the next year and we added more things. My husband was outside the front door

dressed as a headless man in a long tuxedo jacket, holding his head under his arm. He waved and beckoned kids to come inside. Some went down the street screaming, but the ones who came before weren't scared. The brave ones did come inside.

Inside I had strobe lights and I added hanging bats. We had the haunted house record and all of the things as before. Two of my aunts came and dressed as witches. They had hand written

little fortunes on paper and each one wrapped around a penny.

They made 200 and they gave all of them out, one each to each guest. They also gave them Witch's Brew to drink. We got over 200 kids.

 Again, the kids got their treats at the end of the tour. They loved it. Even now, when I run into one of the neighborhood kids, now adults, they talk about how all the neighborhood kids

loved our haunted house. No one else was doing anything like that back in 1976-77.

 My own children told me that Halloween was their favorite holiday, right up there with Christmas.

[JackieHN]

I grew up in the 50's and everyone on our  block made it all a wonderful experiene for us.. 

[candys mine]

Sure!  I remember going out right after dinner, Chomping at the bit because it was already dark out and  thinking all the candy was going to be gone by the time we got out the door.

Neighbor kids would move in groups up and down the streets, There were a LOT of 3 family houses around and there was a lot of clomping feet and chatter as groups passed each other about which house was giving out what.

There were no extra police around,  Parents did NOT dress in costume.  No glo-lights,  Some had flashlights.  Don't remember Ever hearing about razor blades and the like in candy and never heard of anybody Finding any either. 

Then, you sorted your candy into keep and trade piles and traded with your siblings and took some to school the next day to trade during recess.

Making Jack-o-lanterns was the thing to do and you ALWAYS had to roast the pumpkin seeds afterwards.  YUM.

( Years later, Martha stewart's idea of cutting a hole in the BOTTOM of the pumpkin so you could light the candle and set the lantern over it was a Revelation! )

Hope Everyone has a Happy Halloween!

[Carolina925]

I remember and loved it. We knew most all our neighbors and it ws fun when they'd try to guess who we were. This was back when those horrible plastic masks were all the rage. We had an older couple who made us bob for apples! We, of course, wanted candy but it was so much fun being able to bob for those apples. 

Now, in the beginning of October, business and churches all have some sort of "trunk or treat" thing and the kids can get candy giveaways for all weekends in October. Takes away the excitement of that one day, in my opinion.

I stopped giving out candy some years ago when the trick or treaters got to be bigger than I and coming later in the night, after 9 PM. I like to give out candy at around 5 or 6 when the littles come around.

[wagirl]

OMG---YES!!! Went for blocks and blocks away from home with pillowcases that were FULL of candy!!! Costumes made at home and no parents around when we were older---but had to be home at a certain time. 

[songbird]

Since we were immigrants, my parents were shocked by Halloween.  They had no idea my classmates were dressing like ghosts, scary things.  The second year were here they allowed me to get a costume and go trick or treating.  By the times I got to be a teen, we switched to tricks sometimes.  Soaping cars  were the worst things we ever  did.  As a child my costumes were hand sewn.  My mother was a excellent seamstress.  

I was always fascinated by things in the UK for Halloween. I learned about the Snap Dragon game, in addition to trick of treating.  Today Halloween is celebrated in more countries around the world.

[LuvSoCal]

I have very fond memories of Halloween when growing up. My girlfriends in grade school and I always attended a slumber party that night after trick or treating. We went to Catholic school and had the next day off (All Saints Day). We'd go through our stashes and trade some of our haul, have a seance, make prank phone calls to the boys in our class, dance to loud music and eat a lot of junk food. Those were fun times!