March 29, 2024

Halloween: Costumes, Neighborhoods, Carnivals

Posted on October 4, 2014 by in EdNote

For Halloween each year my brother was a skeleton and I was a gypsy. It never occurred to me to ask for a new costume. As reasonable parents of the 1950s my folks would have said no, thinking the idea frivolous. My childhood friends also wore the same costumes year after year, and there was great comfort in the certainty of Freddy’s feisty pirate, Molly’s stunning Cinderella, and Jimmy’s slim Superman (we  encouraged him to gobble up a few more Wheaties before tackling the FBI’s Most Wanted.) Our costumes weren’t elaborate, but they fueled our imagination.

The thrill of Trick-or-Treating around the neighborhood with classmates was only surpassed by the excitement of my school’s annual Halloween Carnival. Each class sponsored a different event — cake walks, fishing games, ring tosses, a haunted house. While room mothers roamed the halls selling dime caramel apples or penny candies, I searched up and down the school corridors for Mrs. McWhorter. Dressed as Old Mother Hubbard, she’d wink mischievously as she searched her deep pockets for a treat I was sure she’d saved just for me.

After the carnival we dashed from house to house, ringing doorbells and daring neighborhood parents to recognize us behind our deep disguises. I was always  disappointed when, handing out candies and homemade treats, they called us by name. How could they tell?

Our parents never worried about the Trick-or-Treat loot we received until one year when a news story about razor blades in candied apples hit the airwaves.  The incident happened in some far off place, like Chicago or New York, but the impact of that story forever changed the innocence of Halloween. While we didn’t expect razor blades in our Halloween treats, who knew what was going on in the kitchens behind our neighbors’ closed doors? We intentionally scared ourselves silly thinking of all the different and dangerous scenarios.   

By the time I outgrew the red skirt, green vest and peasant blouse from my gypsy life, and Vic had ripped his skeleton costume beyond repair, our parents said we’d outgrown Halloween. I might have resisted, but by then we’d moved into a different neighborhood, and my new school didn’t sponsor any special Halloween events. The pirates in this new subdivision weren’t as feisty, and I met no beautiful Cinderellas. There was an older Superman, but he was buff and intimidating. No Freddys, Mollys and Jimmys in this crowd. In the course of one short year I’d crossed the line from treater to treatee.

Lucky for me I married a man who’d enjoyed the innocent fun of his family’s Halloween traditions as much as I had. We were determined our children would love the holiday as well, for the pure thrill of make-believe. Over the years we made lots of costumes for our two treaters, from an open shark’s mouth, to an astronaut complete with blinking lights, to Raggedy Ann, to a 1920s flapper, to the pointy-eared character Link, from the The Legend of Zelda video game. Our children loved our excitement at helping them become a different character for one night each year. Hopefully, they’ll instill that love of make-believe in their children.

When October 31 rolls around, celebrate the holiday through a child’s perspective. Be there with your children or grands to share with them one of childhood’s most imaginative holidays. “Trick-or-Treat!”

(Publisher’s Note: Sandra Polizos’ “Editor’s Note” recently received a First Place award at the North American Mature Publishers Association convention, an organization representing more than 100 publications in 30 states with a collective readership of 9 million. Awards are judged by the U. of Missouri School of Journalism.)
Sandra Polizos, Editor

Sandra Polizos, Editor

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