Happy Halloween

Today I was driving through town and realized it was actually Halloween day. Since I took the kids trick or treating on Saturday I hadn't planned to pass out candy or anything. At the last minute Jude and I decided to turn on our light and tried to unload some misc. stuff we had left over from the pumpkin decorating party. We didn't even get ONE trick or treater. Can you believe that? Oh well. I did feel a little nostaligic thinking about Halloween when I was a kid. I grew up in Vermilion and lived on State Rt. 60. It was a heavily traveled "rural" road. The houses are not very close together so we also did not get many trick or treaters. My mom was just talking yesterday about this kid that lived by us named Chuck. Chuck was something else. I have so many stories about this guy...starting from kindergarder (he pooped his pants on the bus and Stormin' Norma made him move to the back seat and made everyone else move to the front). But I am telling you about Halloween right now... Chuck would trick or treat every night, for a week, leading up to Halloween. He would dress in costume (usually nothing fancy) and off he'd go. It still makes me laugh. I also remember going trick or treating my senior year of high school in Valley View (a housing development in Vermilion by the High School). Chuck went with us. He is very big. Big and tall. People were angry that we were trick or treating - especially about Chuck. They kept asking him if he had kids of his own at home!
When Heather and I would go trick or treating, my dad or mom would drive us from house to house. It would take us an hour to just go around our "country" block. One time we went to McCray Meade's house and we get out, run to the door and just then someone jumped from underneath the porch to scare us. I am lucky I didn't wet my pants. I think Heather actually started crying. I don't remember if we even got the candy. I don't think we did. I know for our remaining trick or treating years we were very cautious at that house. I think we secretly wanted them to scare us again. Those were the days. Oh, and let me tell you about the candy...it was the good stuff. Whole candy bars. Entire packs of gum. Candy necklaces. Homemade popcorn balls from someone you knew and trusted. And the pennies. It wasn't because the people in our neighborhood were rich. It was because we didn't have van loads of kids coming from other neighborhoods to cash in on the treats. It was just the kids from our area. I could probably name most of them for you still to this day!
When I was in 2nd or 3rd grade I was in a club. The people in the club were Heather, Tracy, Susan and myself. We would pay dues (like a quarter) and have meetings in the woods. Well, we decided to have a Halloween party. We thought we would pay for it with our dues. Afterall, we did have about $4 saved up. So we planned games, apple bobbing, music, etc... It was going to be a real bash. And then we started inviting people. I don't remember if we gave out invitations or not. All I know is that we didn't tell our moms until a few days before the party! My mom says she doesn't remember the details but I know there were a lot of kids in our basement bobbing for apples, so she must of pulled together somehow. We never had anymore club meetings after that party. But it wasn't the last Halloween party that I'd throw. We had a big one in High School. There was probably 60 kids there. We had a little Haunted Trail in the woods and a big bon fire in the back yard. I dressed up like Albert Einstien. I think I won a prize. A bunch of kids from my youth group were making out with each other by the fire and my parents weren't too happy.

Oh Halloween, the memories I have...