TRICK OR TREAT

Halloween is one of my favorite little holidays. But, it has changed so very much since when I was a little kid. Yeah, we still carve pumpkins, decorate outside our homes, and inside also. And we hand out candy, if we get any trick or treaters. It now seems that going around the neighborhood on Halloween is not the thing to do.

Instead, parents take the kids to the mall and the stores hand out candy and such. Or they go to a party where they are locked in a building, with music,candy,

games, and adult supervision. Also, the schools will not allow any costumes of a scary nature. No witches, goblins, or monsters of the like.

When I was a kid, I had a costume one year as Frankenstein. That's when you had a plastic mask with eye holes and a little slot for the mouth. It was a slip on, one-piece costume that you tied at the back of your neck. It was meant to be worn over your clothes, and you'd throw a fit if it was to cold out and you parents made you wear a jacket over your costume (which it always was and they always did).

Over the years I went as Superman, Dracula, the Mummy, the Wolf Man, a cowboy, a soldier, fireman, Indian, Roman soldier, Hobo, pilot, and so many others.

And those masks! You couldn't breathe through your nose; you had to breathe through your mouth.

We used paper grocery bags to haul our candy. We would go from house to house, as fast as we could, for about the first five houses. Our faces got kind of sweaty from breathing too hard through our mouths into that plastic mask. It seemed that about every block there was at least three or four houses where we would have to do a trick before we got our treat.

About all I could do was a somersault or to stand on my head. Some would sing or recite a poem of some kind. We were allowed to go through our neighborhood by ourselves. Only the real little kids had grown ups with them. 'Course, they were watching out for all of the kids. 

As the years went by, and I was old enough to be on my own, I went to a Halloween party. 'Course, I dressed up as a cowboy with six gun and all. A friend of mine wanted to go, but did not have a costume to wear. So, with the help of my grandmother and some of her makeup and some lamb's wool, we made my friend up as the wolf man.

I knew that another guy was going to dress up as a cowboy also. So, my friend and I came up with a plan. I would call this guy, the other cowboy, out for a show down. As we were about to draw on one another, I told him that I would sic my dog on him. I whistled real loud and another friend came lumbering in, all hunched over and making growling noises. He proceeded to grab the guy by the leg and humped his leg.

Everyone went bonkers laughing and my friend ran outside. Everyone was trying to figure out who it was! We had them all going for about 10 minutes or so. He finally came in and they figured out who he was. We both got invited to a lot of Halloween parties after that. 

We even ended up getting a few dates also.