Happy Halloween!

Yes, I did buy the new Meatloaf cd. It is quite good.

I'm not doing anything special for Halloween. Children don't frequent apartments for their trick or treating adventures. Instead, they go off to nice subdivisions. Did anyone else notice that the more upscale the neighborhood, the bigger tightasses they are about handing out candy? It seems that you get the best booty in the middle class neighborhoods...but I digress. I'm just thinking about all the Halloween fun I can have next year in my own house.

No...tonight's agenda: laundry and more packing. I suppose there is a degree of fright to dirty laundry, particularly when it comes to my scrubs as I never know what unseen organism hitches a ride home on them after a night of KC's sickest. Next year will be different (provided I'm not working).

Remember how fun Halloween used to be when we were kids? We'd dress up and go to school. The first half of the day we'd half-ass our way through classes. The last half of the day was dedicated to the class party. Moms would show up with homemade cookies and cupcakes and punch (My mom always liked to make cupcakes with frosting, topped by a candy-corn pumpkin). We'd eat enough sugar to put an entire small town into a diabetic coma, we'd play various Halloween games. Then, school would let out and we'd hurry home to poke at some quick dinner of hot dogs before we'd drive our parents nuts with cries to begin Trick or Treating in. Our parents would take turns taking us out. We'd go to strangers' houses, we'd stay out until midnight. Ahhh...those were the days!!

Now...I can't imagine how Halloween can be fun for kids. Over-zealous soccer moms have ruined it for everyone. I was pretty mortified when Trish told me about the restrictions imposed on kids today when it comes to Halloween. Restrictions such as:

-All eats have to be pre-wrapped. No more homemade cookies or cupcakes.
-Punch must also be premade, buy the manufacturer. Nothing hand-mixed, not even Kool-aid.
-No painted faces or masks at school.
-Trick or treat only to people you know.
-Night ends at 10pm or earlier.

Now, I can understand the last two. I remember the Halloween scare of the 80's, when crazy assholes were hiding stuff in chocolate bars. The year that happened, the company that made Jolly Ranchers (before Hershey bought them out) said they would give 1lb of candy to each trick-or-treater because everyone was too afraid to go elsewhere. All we would have to do is go to their factory (in Colorado...where we lived at the time). Mom piled us three kids, plus 3 of the neighbor kids, into the van and drove out to Golden where we proceeded to wait in line for 3 hours. By the time we made it to the front, employees (dressed up as clowns), gave each kid a pound, plus two extra pounds to my Mom for waiting so long. The other mom that came along with her kids handed over two of her bags because she didn't want that much candy in her house. Seven pounds of Jolly Ranchers came into our house that night.

We had Jolly Rancher candy until about mid-March...which made us popular with the rest of the neighbor kids.

I used to wear those costumes that come with a blow-up hat in the form of a big spider, cat, or pumpkin. I don't think they even make them anymore. Anyone else remember?

And the stuff you'd get trick or treating! Ahh...popcorn balls, suckers with tissue wrapped around them to make them look like little ghosts, apples. Sometimes, we'd even score some homemade cookies. Gone are those days. Now, if a parent sees something not wrapped in your bag, it immediately goes into the garbage. I can't fault the parent for being cautious, but it makes me sad to see how cynical the world has become.