Memories of Halloween's Past

 Where has this year gone? It seems not that long ago that we were up North celebrating the New Year with family and now here we are almost Halloween. 

Halloween is one of my favourite holidays. I love the decorations! I love the costumes! I love the excitement of the neighbourhood children. Add to that the beauty of Autumn with it's colours and the scent of Fall in the air. 

Matthew's father and I used to go all out on Halloween. We had the dry ice, the voice distorter, the darkened house and cemetery in the lawn. One year he even dressed as Dr. Frankenstein to the neighbour's Frankenstein's monster. 

When we moved back to my hometown while my oldest was little, I hand sewed all of his costumes. As more kids came along it became too much to make all those costume, but I still made sure there was plenty of candy for the trick or treaters. I brought my children to the community Halloween party after taking them through my old neighbourhood to collect goodies. Eventually we moved to the country so there were no more trick or treaters. That didn't stop the decorating though.

As the kids grew and we found a church that we liked, I became active as a volunteer. One of our yearly events was a community Halloween party, to replace the one held years earlier. I would take the kids trick or treating around my old neighbourhood and then we would go to the church party where the older kids loved helping out. When that was over we headed to the local Stewart's convenience store where the kids were given free ice cream cones for being in costume. 

When we moved to Western NY Halloweens became more of the familiar. We volunteered at our church for their Annual Trunk or Treat.  

On Halloween we formed a circle around the parking lot with our trunks/hatches/tailgates facing in and loaded up with candy.  Some decorated their vehicles while others left them plain. Of course we decorated. We had bounce houses, hot dogs with chips and apple cider. The best part? It was all free to the public! The last year outdoors we counted 976 kids. After a couple of years we moved everything indoors (well, not the vehicles). There were a lot more kids coming through since they didn't have to brave the snow and cold temperatures off Lake Erie. Cleaning up the hay spread throughout the church with a leaf blower was fun too!

By the time we moved here to our current home the kids were all too old to go trick or treating, although the girls still like to get dressed up. The neighbourhood kids all go to the malls and other places to get more candy than they would in our small neigbourhood. But I still love the decorations. 

I hope you all have a Happy, and Safe, Halloween!

    

Until Next Time!

    Ingrid