Mine is when I was about 6. We were visiting family and the cousins were really hurrying to get to a special house. We ran to a very small kind of run down house with a line of children in front. When the door was opened and we went side in I couldn't believe my eyes. There were tables of goodies everywhere. All kinds of Super large homemade cookies, popcorn balls, big squares of fudge, cupcakes with lots of frosting on top, and candied apples. The problem was...you could only pick one! I circled the 4 large tables and counter twice before I could make up my mind. I found out latter that the lady was a retired school teacher and it was the highlight of the season for her. I wish I could do that but now it's not safe. How sad.
We never celebrated Halloween too much here as kids but I do remember bobbing for apples and coins. Do others bob for coins or was it just us?
I have always loved Halloween, mainly for the candy but also because it is closer to the start of Autumn down here than the Equinox in Sept is and Autumn is my second favorite season. Frank, bobbing for apples is common or was years ago, now people are so germophobic they panic at the thought. But no, I never heard of bobbing for coins...had to have been a much shallower water container Two Halloween memories stand out in particular...the one when the lady down the road gave us all bags of sweet potatoes (we were sad but parents all along the road were very happy) and the year the candle in the jack-o-lantern on the window sill caught the curtains on fire and our neighbor ran in to kick it outside. And there was the year when all hospital emergency rooms were open so parents could have the collected candy and apples x-rayed to make sure there were no pins or razor blades in them. At that point the days of popcorn balls, candied apples and other homemade goodies was over. I have a newspaper photo of some friends and I going door to door collecting money for UNICEF. We were much too old and sophisticated for trick or treat so we all did that for a couple of years through junior high school then we would all stay home to pass out candy to the little ones when we were in high school.
Toni, I had to giggle when I read that you were given bags of sweet potatoes! I can only imagine the shock you all felt! Frank, there was always apple bobbing at the school party but not coins. There were also cake walks, fishing for prizes and many other things. We went trick or treating early and then went to the school. It was a big day for all of us. That was still going on for my children when they were in school. I haven't heard the grandchildren talk about it so maybe the kids have out-grown it. Netty, everyone has things they like or dislike. It would be a boring world if we all thought the same.
I used to Trick or Treat with friends and one lady, we called her Grandma Heart would always invite us in. I agree you can't do that anymore, and she would talk with us. She enjoyed company like most older people do so we ended up singing songs for her and she would give us a treat. We would stay quite a while and we even started stopping to see her when it wasn't Halloween. :-D
Halloween was always my favorite time when so many children would come but our numbers have gone done quite a bit. When we lived on the other side of town we would get a couple hundred children. Now we only had 14...I do like to decorate the front entrance with ghost and goblins to greet them.
Our little town has a huge Halloween party at the park with a Trunk or Treat also. Lots of games and a haunted house that the kids really like so we just get the neighbor kids. I also decorate the front of the house but not it's not elaborate. At our age we don't need to be climbing ladders especially on snow or ice so everything is easy for us.
I do not get trick or treaters here. I'm to far off the road. I had one about 25 years ago and I had no candy to give him. So I gave him money. I thought for sure they would be lined up at my door the next year.
Really? I can understand not bobbing for coins but for apples? There was an article I read once that said that washing apples does not normally get rid of bacteria / pesticide that may have collected around the apple stalk. Is this the reason?
It's not the apples that are the problem, it's the 'germy' faces that the kids are sticking into the bucket of water. We never thought about that as kids, neither did our parents but people (over here anyway) are so afraid of catching something. Most of the time there is no rational thinking process behind the fear and usually the fear is more from ignorance than anything.
Well the only Halloween memory that I have, is when my school friend Scott invited me over for a Halloween party at his home. He was American, so he was I think really annoyed that nobody over here bothered with that. So in sheer frustration he and I decided to do something about - By having a party at his home. Anyway, it all turned into a fight between cowboys and demons. In fact most of the time we were mainly throwing stuff at each other (after running out of our cap gun ammo)! Me on the left, and Scott on the right ( photo / image / picture from S-H's Garden )
