Someone Stole Halloween!!!

Guess what!!! I passed the “Halloween” test with flying colors!!!! I only got the urge to munch on M&M’s for a few seconds. A couple of M&M’s later, and I’m good. :-) No harm in that, right? I didn’t have the urge to dip my hand into the candy dish to pull out a candy bar that is meant to give to the trick or treating children. I’m so proud of myself!!! GO ME!!!
Speaking of Trick Or Treating… I remember as a child, Halloween and trick or treating was HUGE in our neighborhood. The streets were packed full of parents taking groups of costumed witches, rock stars, and ninja’s through the neighborhood to get gobs of candy that would rot our teeth later on. You would pass numerous groups of kids and parents every Halloween! Every house was lit up by hand carved pumpkins that did not use a pattern, homemade decorations of paper mache pumpkins and ghosts and goblins, instead of the store bought kind. Our costumes were last minute creations of our imaginations, instead of the kind that you spend $40 on at a Halloween store. A white sheet could be anything you wanted it to be.
Somewhere in my busy life of growing up, someone lost Halloween in my parents neighborhood. Yes, the children of yesteryear have all grown up and are no longer living there, but there are now more children in my parents neighborhood than there have been in YEARS!! Somehow, the fun of trick or treating in our safe neighborhood has been lost. We had a grand total of 7.. let me spell that out for you, S-E-V-E-N children, to come knock on our door. Those 7 children came in two different groups. Gone are the days that the mothers would sit at home to hand out candy, and fathers would round up the kids to go out and gather our riches.
Instead of neighborhoods, kids now trick or treat in Malls, Churches, Dorms, etc. What is wrong with a parent taking their child trick or treating in their own neighborhood? I know I am not a parent, but how hard is it to stay with your child as you take them around to trick or treat in a neighborhood? I can understand if you live in a high crime area, however, if you do not… then what is wrong? Why does Halloween have to be so materialistic? What happened the the neighborhood Trick Or Treating??

** Steps down slowly from my soapbox**

Whew.. I feel better having just typed all of that out.

I will blog tomorrow about the adventures of Carnevil 2007 and my genius “Devil With a Blue Dress On” costume. I have to admit, it was freaky freaky freaky, but I think I fit in. haha. So ta ta for now, and till tomorrow…..