Where Have All the Ghouls Gone?

When I was a kid, Halloween was a big deal in my neighborhood. All of us youngsters lined up and paraded around the cul-de-sac before we hit every house we possibly could in the area and acquired enough candy to make any self-respecting dentist cry. My grandmother was an incredibly talented seamstress; we would tell her what we wanted to be (usually by July!), and she would create the most amazing costumes for us from scratch. She'd find a photo of whatever we came up with (ex, Cinderella, The Lone Ranger, etc.) and churn away! This was well before you could really buy anything more than a sheet to be a ghost for Halloween, so we always stood out in the crowd.

My parents and their friends in the neighborhood (aka my friends' parents) created a magnificent haunted house facade on cardboard that we pulled out of the attic every year and staple gunned to our garage. There was a maze created in the garage with "scary" items scattered throughout (think ax in fake head, hanging ghosts, and witches' cauldrons while the tape recorder rolled over and over with a woman loudly screaming and scary chuckles interspersed throughout), and it ended when you came out of the back of the garage and down the stairs where there were "grave stones" in the giant flower bed out back (a la Haunted Mansion at Disney World - "Here Lies Fred...Without His Head"). I remember my dad standing out front well after our bed time (I could see him from my bedroom window) for all of the teenagers in our neighborhood to go through over and over. Halloween was epic. We looked forward to it every year ALMOST as much as we did Christmas.

Today, not only is it not as exciting, but there is little to do in our neighborhood. When I first moved into this house in 1998, there was still some activity - I ran out of candy every year! But since my kiddo started trick-or-treating, there is not much to do that is considered "safe" these days. Most of my neighbors either turn off their lights or just don't answer the door. The first year we were here, Ellie went as Belle (or Bellie!) to the school party, which was randomly held at a place near downtown (rec center/park area) at 10 AM, but nothing was very well organized; none of her friends were there; didn't see her teachers anywhere... It was kind of odd; most of the decorations scared her; the games were too old for her; the candy was a choking hazard. And then it was over.
 
Last year, Ellie was Rapunz-Ellie! She was adorable "holding court" at the lake where they had a party in my parents' affluent neighborhood. But that was all we really did; it was a bit anti-climactic to say the least. The school event was held at her location this time, but the communication about how it was going to happen was not very clear, so she ended up attending but not in costume. And we didn't trick-or-treat around the neighborhood because most of the houses were dark (and the people in this area are not the most friendly for whatever reason).

This year, Ellie wanted to be like Uncle and be Bat Girl! She got to wear her costume to school, which was great because it was much better organized, and she got to parade around in it with her friends, but then I had class :( Before class started, I took her to Publix (they had put an insert in my grocery bag earlier in the week saying that they would be trick-or-treating from 4-8 PM on Halloween), but they were not ready early on, so it was kind of a bust. It was 4:30 and they were still decorating; no one was really paying attention. Fortunately, Uncle's class was canceled at the last minute so he was able to take her back to her school for the Halloween party, and I heard she had fun, so that was a little better I guess.

But clearly it all pales in comparison to the "good ol' days" when we were free to roam about the neighborhood and didn't have to worry as much about weirdos or tainted candy or pedophiles/sexual predators... The worst that happened was when you went to the little old lady's house on the corner, she gave you 5 pennies for your UNICEF collection. Speaking of, whatever happened to that tradition?

I swore I'd never be the old person who did the whole, "You kids missed out 'cause when I was a kid...," and for the most part, they have it better in a lot of ways. Halloween is just not one of them.