Sunday, October 31, 2004
Halloween Nostalgia
It's tough to identify the exact age when Halloween loses its magic, but for me, I think it was around the age of 15 or 16. Before that, it seemed like a huge, fun holiday. I thought about my costume with great excitement, and planned for weeks beforehand. As I got older, my costumes got more and more elaborate - one year I was a microwave, and the next I was a Pac-Man machine. An unfortunately side effect of these costumes was that they became heavier and heavier, as I toted around pounds upon pounds of lumber and cardboard.
Around the time I entered high school, I was officially too old to go trick-or-treating. Instead, my brother, father, and our friend Pat decided to devise a diabolical scheme to scare other trick-or-treaters. The first plan was a tried-and-true one. We had my father dress up as a scarecrow, and sit motionless on the porch, with his hand in the candy bowl. We left a sign up that said "Please take one". As trick-or-treaters walked up, he'd grab their hand, or say something, and usually completely freak them out. It was a ton of fun, and my dad did a great job at appearing like a real scarecrow - complete with overalls, and a shirt stuffed with hay. It was especially gratifying when no-good punk kids tried to take more than one piece of candy, and then nearly peed themselves when my dad called them on it.
The following year, we tried to be a bit more clever, and we cut a hole in the bottom of the candy bowl and in the top of a table, and had someone put their hand up through the hole, and grab the hands of people as they reached for candy. We encountered less success with this plan, although I do recall that a couple of people did completely freak out when they got their hand grabbed.
The final year (probably my junior year in high school, if memory serves me), was the weakest one. We tried to string up a dummy on the porch and have it so that as people reached for the candy, we'd shut the lights off on the porch and the dummy would start moving towards them on a pulley. That failed miserably, as we really didn't design the pulley too well, and it didn't move fast enough to really scare anyone. I think we also had someone wait in my parents' van and jump out as people passed by, but that was pretty lame. Eventually, I think we actually moved to have someone in a trash can at the end of the driveway, and jump out at people there, but that didn't work well, either. Although I do recall that the highlight of that night was when Pat was in the trash can, and my dad and brother and I taped the can shut and started wheeling him down the street, while he was screaming at us to let him out. Very amusing.
But, since those thrilling times, I really haven't gotten into Halloween. We haven't really had a lot of trick-or-treaters come by since I graduated from college. I wonder if it has to do with the neighborhood, or if trick-or-treating is dying off around the country. Dammit, pollsters, why can't you find out answers to useful questions, like the percentage of trick-or-treaters over the past 10 years? At any rate, I hope you had an enjoyable Halloween, whatever you did. Ok, ok, I'll get back in the spirit: Boo!
Around the time I entered high school, I was officially too old to go trick-or-treating. Instead, my brother, father, and our friend Pat decided to devise a diabolical scheme to scare other trick-or-treaters. The first plan was a tried-and-true one. We had my father dress up as a scarecrow, and sit motionless on the porch, with his hand in the candy bowl. We left a sign up that said "Please take one". As trick-or-treaters walked up, he'd grab their hand, or say something, and usually completely freak them out. It was a ton of fun, and my dad did a great job at appearing like a real scarecrow - complete with overalls, and a shirt stuffed with hay. It was especially gratifying when no-good punk kids tried to take more than one piece of candy, and then nearly peed themselves when my dad called them on it.
The following year, we tried to be a bit more clever, and we cut a hole in the bottom of the candy bowl and in the top of a table, and had someone put their hand up through the hole, and grab the hands of people as they reached for candy. We encountered less success with this plan, although I do recall that a couple of people did completely freak out when they got their hand grabbed.
The final year (probably my junior year in high school, if memory serves me), was the weakest one. We tried to string up a dummy on the porch and have it so that as people reached for the candy, we'd shut the lights off on the porch and the dummy would start moving towards them on a pulley. That failed miserably, as we really didn't design the pulley too well, and it didn't move fast enough to really scare anyone. I think we also had someone wait in my parents' van and jump out as people passed by, but that was pretty lame. Eventually, I think we actually moved to have someone in a trash can at the end of the driveway, and jump out at people there, but that didn't work well, either. Although I do recall that the highlight of that night was when Pat was in the trash can, and my dad and brother and I taped the can shut and started wheeling him down the street, while he was screaming at us to let him out. Very amusing.
But, since those thrilling times, I really haven't gotten into Halloween. We haven't really had a lot of trick-or-treaters come by since I graduated from college. I wonder if it has to do with the neighborhood, or if trick-or-treating is dying off around the country. Dammit, pollsters, why can't you find out answers to useful questions, like the percentage of trick-or-treaters over the past 10 years? At any rate, I hope you had an enjoyable Halloween, whatever you did. Ok, ok, I'll get back in the spirit: Boo!
Comments:
For anyone interested there are pictures of Dan and me in our Hallowen costumes on my webpage. I spent the evening handing out three bags of candy bars to trick-or-treaters. Happy Halloween!
Lauren, I feel like I'm always bringing you down! I'm glad to hear you get into the Halloween spirit. I'm busy agonizing over the election. You lil' cowboys are just so adorable in your outfits! So, in your experiences, do you think trick-or-treating is waxing or waning (to steal from Lemony Snicket) or plateauing?
Dave, there is no bring down occurring here. In my opinion, kids are trick-or-treating less these days, but I don't know why. This is the first year I've lived somewhere in LA that trick-or-treaters have visited so it just seemed like a lot. When I was growing up all of the neighborhood kids were out on Halloween night gathering candy. I thought it was fun. As far as the election goes, the insanity should be over (for the most part) tomorrow.
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