Rant #364: Boo To You Too

Halloween is coming up this Sunday.

Boy, do I remember the Halloweens of my youth.

Living in a place known as Rochdale Village--with 20 buildings and thousands of apartments--Halloween was more treat than trick for us. We would start at our building, go from floor to floor, apartment to apartment, and have full bags, and then we would move over to the next building, go from apartment to apartment, get full bags ...

Heck, I didn't even eat the candy--I gave it to my sister. It was the fun and thrill of getting candy, mixed with a few pennies thrown in for good measure.

And boy, was it fun.

In those days, you would have the occasional creep who would give you something that could hurt you. I remember my sister got an apple with pins in it. We knew exactly who gave it to her--an old lady--but in those days, you didn't do anything about it. You just threw it out and moved on to the next thing.

It was so much fun.

Until some other types of creeps would mug you in the hallway for your candy.

Yes, this did happen. It took the fun out of Halloween for me, and by the age of 13, I was done trick or treating.

I remember the last year we lived in the development, some girls, after receiving candy from us, threw an apple at our door.

And a very nice splatter it made.

Today, Halloween is much more controlled. Parents walk with their kids, and by and large, only go to houses where they know the family. Thus, we only get a couple of trick or treaters, even though we have lots of candy.

Their loss, I guess.

But also, the holiday has become such a corporate one. Millions of dollars each year are spent on costumes, candy and decorations.

It's just not the same holiday that we had when we were kids. Sure, there were costumes, but we basically winged it, and it was so much more fun.

And I just don't think it is as good a holiday today as we it was when we were kids.

Like I said, we would get the occasional rotten treat, but generally, people were very nice. It was a real kids' holiday, which it isn't anymore.

And that really is a shame, isn't it?

Boo to that!