So, this year for Halloween, my wife and I put out modest decorations. We lined our front walk with little plastic pumpkins and hung out some spooky looking signs like "Beware" and "Graveyard". Not much, but enough to let the children in our neighborhood know that we were hosting trick-or-treaters this year. I remember when I was a kid, going around to various houses, that I hated it when we could not determine if a house was participating. If the house had all their lights turned off and no decorations, it was pretty clear they were not giving anything out. If a house was smothered with decorations , spooky music, a fog machine running, and someone in front in costume with a bowl of candy, it was a safe bet they were giving out candy. However, the houses that were lit, but had no decorations were a mystery. Sometimes they were giving away candy, and other times they just would not answer the door. It was annoying to waste perfectly good candy-gathering time on these houses that refused to respect the Halloween code.
What is the Halloween code? Good question, I'm glad you asked. Here it is:
"If thou art participating in the practice of bequeathing free goodies upon youngsters who took the time to garb themselves in various and sundry disguises and seek thine door for such favours, then it is judicious to put out some form of decoration or sign to indicate as such. And if thou choosest not to participate in the aforementioned festivities, then thou art tallt and must have nary a light on outside your premises."
Basically, stop wasting my (and other kids') time with guessing games. We have a hard enough time coming up with costumes each year and determining which neighborhoods will result in the maximum haul for least amount of effort.
Speaking of costumes, I remember several memorable ones from my childhood. My mom made me an E.T. costume that I wore for several years.
STOP LAUGHING!
Back when I was a kid, E.T. was pretty cool. Plus, my dad took a mini-flashlight and rigged it so the tip of my costume's finger glowed red, just like in the movie. At the time, I had the coolest costume on the block.
I also remember dressing up as a caveman one year. I made a club out of paper maché covering a few styrofoam cups and a balloon. My dad helped me make my "furs" out of some old fake-fur coat liners that we sewed together. It was a pretty cool costume. I had a wig that we messed up by putting dirt and twigs in it, I got these fake bushy eyebrows too. My brother, G, had just finished some dinosaur project he did for a class so I also had an over-sized paper maché bone that I tucked into my fake fur belt. Yeah, I had a pretty cool costume that year.
I believe the last year I went trick-or-treating was at the start of my Sophomore year in High School. I had just discovered the Dragonlance books written by Weis and Hickman, and since I had already carved my Boy Scout walking stick into the semblance of a magical staff (basically, I carved the top into a three-pronged claw and glued a large blue marble in it), I decided to go as Raistlin Majere. That Halloween was one of the best I've ever had, and one of my last really good memories from when I lived in Pleasanton, but more on that later.
So my wife and I had put up decorations, and I even had a CD with recordings of scary sounds that I played last year (and got compliments on it!) all set up. Unfortunately I worked the night of Halloween, so I was not able to hand out candy this year. So instead, I spent my spare time during the night reading up on various Halloween customs around the world. It got me to thinking, I was curious as to the historical origins of the holiday. I knew a little of it, but wanted to know more, so I did some research on the internet and came up with this:
The Celts observed only two seasons of the year: summer and winter. Samhain was celebrated at one of the transitions between these seasons. It was the eve of their festival of Samhain which was a joyful harvest festival that marked the death of the old year and the beginning of a new one. The Celtic people feared this evening of October 31 more than any other day of the year. Come evening, evil spirits were everywhere. Several rituals were performed by the Celtic Druids to appease the Lord of the Dead.
Christianity entered the scene in the fourth century and the Christian Fathers tried their hardest to stamp out all things pagan. However, the Celts held firmly to their customs. So, the Christian church absorbed these holy days, gave them new meanings and new names, and told the people that the fire rites they had previously held for the Lord of the Dead on October 31 would now protect them from the Devil, the enemy of God.
In the 9th century the Christian church moved All Saint's Day from May to November 1st. The original festival for the pagan Lord of the Dead became a festival of Christian dead. People went on expecting the arrival of ghosts on October 31st. Another name for All Saint's Day was All Hallows' Eve which was later shortened to Halloween.
So, as my cousin put it, on Halloween we should be celebrating as if it were New Years Eve. Lots of drinking, partying, dressing up, having a great time... oh wait. We already do that.
Speaking of having a great time... flashing back to my last year of trick-or-treating - remember it was my Sophomore year in High School. So, I had a group of friends from scouts that I hung out with on occasion and we decided to all go around together as a group. A few of the guys had cars, so we were no longer restricted in the areas we could trick-or-treat. We could drive anywhere. For a teen who previously had no method of transportation, and consequently no way of traveling to other neighborhoods this was an awesome feeling.
All sorts of questions rushed through my head. What new areas would we target for trick-or-treating? What kind of candy do they have in these other areas? Are they as good as the rumors have built them up to be? Will we visit more than one part of the town on Halloween night? Is it true that the candy bars are chocolate-ier on the other side of town?
Then one of the group spoke up and suggested we target an area that previously never was even a possibility. It was an area that none of the rest of us had ever been before. Blackhawk. What was Blackhawk? Another good question. Blackhawk is an unincorporated neighborhood about 10 miles north of Pleasanton. Everyone knew it was there, but not many had ever actually been there, for you see Blackhawk is a gated community where many rich celebrities lived. All of us non-rich people were kept out by the armed guards at the front gates. My friend said, however, that his older brother had trick-or-treated inside Blackhawk a few years prior, and that his brother had revealed to him the secret of how to get in and trick-or-treat at this, the Holy Grail of trick-or-treating locations.
Basically, it involves a group of eleven people, all with diverse skills, running a series of scams which all lead up to the biggest heist in Las Ve.. oh wait. Nevermind. That's just my thoughts on a movie script I'm gonna polish up, then travel back in time to get made into a movie. I am thinking of Clooney and Pitt for the lead roles. I'll let you all know how it goes.
Anyways, back to Blackhawk. Basically it involves parking about a half-mile
behind the community, along a side road. Then tromping over hill and dale, through brush and grass, to enter the community from the rear.
Hrm, that just sounds wrong, lets try again.
We maneuvered around the back of the community to penetrate it from behind.
Oh, crap, that sounds worse. I'm gonna stop - I'm positive you get the idea of what happened and how it was to happen. So, we all told our parents we were going to go trick-or-treating over near our high-school, because if we told them we were going to illegally enter the gated Blackhawk community to beg candy from strange rich people, I'm positive it never would have happened. Just because parents are weird like that.
Flash-forward to Halloween night. My parents, being the awesome people they are on Halloween, served up one of two traditional Halloween dishes. Now, you must understand that on Halloween, my parents quickly realized that with all the time spent getting five children ready to go out trick-or-treating, then time spent actually TAKING them trick-or-treating, then time spent sorting through candy once they got home from trick-or-treating (throw away anything opened or with torn packaging, right?), that they would have absolutely no time for preparing a meal, serving a meal, eating a meal, and cleaning up a meal.
So they made things easy for everyone and had one of two meals - Kraft Deluxe Macaroni and Cheese (it HAS to be the deluxe - because the powdered stuff just doesn't cut it!) or pizza. That night we had pizza. I even remember the restaurant.
Garlex Pizza. They had the best crusts - all garlicky and buttery - like a breadstick all on its own, to enjoy once you finished the deliciousness of the rest of the garlicky/cheesy/saucy slice. Too bad they are only located in California, otherwise I would be ordering them at least once a week if not more.
Actual picture of a Garlex Pizza pizza!
So after devouring my chosen victims.. uh.. slices, I quickly finished off my costume and waited for my friends to stop by to pick me up. I handed out candy to a few little kids that had already started to come through the neighborhood, so my mom could help my brothers finish getting ready. Then a horn from outside announced that they were here! I called out to my mom that I was heading out and I would be back late that night. I didn't wait for an answer and ran to meet my friends as I grabbed my staff and pillowcase. Oh yeah, I had to hide the pillowcase on my way out the door, because my parents felt that going trick-or-treating with a pillowcase was somehow crass or lower-class. Silly parents, don't they know that with a larger container, I can get more loot?
I squeezed in the car and we went off to pick up one other guy and then met up with the other car. We all proceeded to drive over to the side road near the back side of Blackhawk. After everyone piled out, we saw a few other cars were parked nearby that also had kids in costumes sitting in them. One of my friends walked over to the closest car and greeted the kids inside. The guy in the drivers seat said that he has been coming here for the past two years, and that the trick was to wait until just after the sun sets, because if you try to cross the fields in the sunlight, the guards who drive around in Blackhawk can see you. So we waited. The wait was short as the sun was already nearly set, and we passed the time by talking to the guy and getting all the information we could on what to expect.
He said that once we get inside, we will be left alone by the security. He also noted that the prior two years his group worked in conjunction with another group, which did not make it this year because all the kids had left for college, to share intel on which houses had the best loot. Our groups agreed to share information on houses we had hit up, so as to maximize the loot-gathering time spent in Blackhawk.
The sun set and we took off through the fields. On the way over, I asked what sort of candy to expect to get, and the guy said that many of the houses just hand out the fun-size candies, but there are some that hand out regular size candy bars, and a rare few that have handed out the king-size ones. My friends and I all looked at each other and grinned.
The rest of the night went by so quickly. I honestly do not remember much of the rest of that night. I do remember one awesome thing, one of the guys who had been there in previous years came up to us at one point and told us to go down two blocks, turn right and hit up the house on that street with all the lights. He said that house was John Madden's house and that he was giving out the best treat of all. He pulled out a Discman from his pillowcase. We ran as fast as we could, but unfortunately we got to the home too late. John Madden, or more accurately whomever he had answering his door that night, had ran out of the Discmen, and was only giving out king-size Snickers. I also remember that my haul was the envy of my brothers and sisters and that it lasted me until Christmas, not for lack of eating it though.
Halloween is meant to be a fun, enjoyable time for kids. Something to look forward to after the depression of school starting up again has had time to sink in. Halloween is supposed to be a time for children to be, well, children. That is why it is a damn shame that only three kids came by my home this year to trick-or-treat. Are they all at home playing Call of Duty - too busy to be bothered with dressing up and going door to door to get free candy and have fun? Or are their parents too scared that they will be kidnapped and won't let them outside?
I really do not know why children do not go trick-or-treating on Halloween any more. I do know, that Halloween was one of my favorite times of the year growing up. Just behind Christmas and my birthday, and just ahead of Easter (you got more candy on Halloween - sorry Easter!) I find it sad that today's generation, for whatever reason, is not having the same enjoyable experiences that I had as a kid.
Maybe it is for the best, its not like kids today have the guts to go around to peoples' houses and beg for candy while dressed up as E.T.
