I should have been Scrooge for Halloween this year. As an adult, that's how I feel about the "holiday". I wasn't always like that. I used to love Halloween as a kid (I mean, really, what average American kid doesn't like free candy and dressing up as whatever you want?)
When I was younger, I loved going out dressed as whatever great idea I came up with that year. One year I was a hippie, another an old man, another a princess (multiple years), a pirate, etc. For the bulk of my good trick-or-treating years, we lived in Illinois in the perfect neighborhood. Just the right amount of houses to get a full stash and friendly-enough neighbors that it never seemed awkward knocking on doors.
And we knew our neighborhood, us kids. There was the house straight out our front door down almost to the main road on the right that gave out little ice creams cups (the guy worked for the Schwan company). You had to time your trick-or-treating just right there: not too early that your ice cream melted if you didn't want to eat it right away, but not too late or else they'd be out. There was the big (somewhat scary) brown house all the way down one side of the U-shaped neighborhood (the one that ended at the cul-de-sac with the pond where we used to go ice skating). That house handed out full-sized popcorn balls. Yes! They were delicious. A couple sporadic houses would give the GIANT candy bars out each year, but you had to be really on your game to get to those houses in time.
Everybody seemed pretty good about decorations too. Though the Skitinos next door always had the best scare-the-pants-off-of-you walkway up to their main door. I distinctly remember a skeleton that sat in a chair near the front that jumped at you as you walked up. Consequently, in my more formative years, my older siblings had to retrieve my candy from their house as I refused to go up (even when my siblings *tried* to convince me that it'd be okay...I didn't trust my siblings much then. ;) )
As the years passed and we moved to Washington, I started falling out of love with the oh-so-favorite holiday of kids. It started with moving to a neighborhood that was separated by acres of land, down a dark and windy gravel road. Not so much trick-or-treating as real-life scare-the-crap-out-of-you bears or cougars or wild crazy mountain men (imagination of a twelve-year-old) potentially lurked around any corner. One year I went with a couple friends whose Mom drove us all down to the town to trick-or-treat in the neighborhoods there. It just wasn't the same. It wasn't my neighborhood. None of them were my neighbors. And no one had little ice cream cups or giant popcorn balls. Just lots of dum-dums and "fun" size candy bars (seriously, FUN? Since when is little candy fun? Since never.) And the only thing I actually remember from that Halloween is that somehow I ended up sitting on chewing gum and it stuck to my costume and I couldn't get it off.
After that, I got too old to trick-or-treat and I wasn't one to get invited to parties (not that I would have gone anyway.) And forget college years: I had absolutely NO desire to dress up as a slutty bunny/maid/policewoman/whatever skanky outfits were deemed "cool" to go to any party that involved alcohol because that just seemed a colossal waste of time, energy, money, and brain cells. Instead, my roommate and I would put a little paper pumpkin cut-out on our door (the RAs handed them out each year) to signify that all the little trick-or-treaters in the local neighborhood could knock on our door to get some candy. (Not that we gave out very good candy...we were broke college students after all. In fact, I don't even remember what we gave out. Probably dum-dums.) The ladybugs and lions and doggies were cute (most were under the age of 7). And when we weren't handing out candy, we were doing homework.
Fast forward to adult life and I realized that Halloween is kind of lame. Now I get to go out and buy candy for strangers who knock on my door in the evening and interrupt my life. Sure, I could turn off the lights so nobody knocked (not that it would stop some), but there's that tiny kid-voice in me that says, "Oh c'mon! Be a sport!" But really, the only trick-or-treaters I want to see are my neighbor kids and my niece and nephew (my niece and nephew and their parents showed up as an entire pirate family which was pretty awesome!). But other than those few kids I know, I don't want to hand out candy to anybody. How did I turn into such a Grinch? (Another costume I should have donned...)
I am glad that I live in a neighborhood with nine houses, surrounded by other neighbors that are just far enough away that most people don't want to walk up a dark(ish) road. Plus, half our neighbors' lights were out this year. And, to be fair, those few die-hards who did venture up (or down) into our neighborhood, were polite and all costumed. But it took a lot to muster the energy to open the door and smile. *Sigh*
I hope that the spirit of dressing up and make-believe comes back to me because, candy-stashing aside, I used to love dressing up. My best childhood friend and I would play dress up for HOURS on end. Now, I just have the Eeyore, "Oh Bother" attitude (another costume idea!). Perhaps when I have a family of my own and get to take them trick-or-treating I will be re-inspired. Until then, I will just have to take pleasure in seeing those few kids I really want to open my door for and be glad that my neighborhood isn't quite as expansive as the one in Illinois.
Bah Humbug.
