Hardly! It sure isn’t “fangtastic” weather-wise today … in fact, it is about as ugly as it gets out there. We’re in the midst of a 36-hour rain and gusty wind event. Ugh. No … make that double ugh!
I was very young, and still living in Canada, when my Halloween costume was Little Red Riding Hood one year. It was chilly and a little drizzly and my parents said “just around the neighborhood once and then home, okay?” Candy-wise, I wasn’t allowed to eat any of my goodies anyway, especially those chewy and gooey, black-and-orange-wax-paper-wrapped peanut butter kisses, so Halloween for me was all about parading around in my costume, which consisted of a mask and a chintzy-made, red satin dress and matching cape. A plastic bag emblazoned with “Little Red Riding Hood” was included for goodies and completed the ensemble. In those days we didn’t use plastic pumpkins with handles, nor pillowcases, to collect our treats. Mom bundled me up in a heavy coat under the costume – wisely, parents usually bought (and still do buy) the costumes a size or two larger to accommodate cold weather on October 31st. With an umbrella in tow, and holding onto my father’s hand, off I went to yell “shell-out, shell-out, the witches are out!” with all the other kids in the neighborhood.
The slight drizzle turned into a downpour and my father soon had enough of traipsing through the damp conditions and we went home. We stepped into the house, standing in the vestibule, both of us dripping wet, when Mom discovered I had a hole in the bottom of my bag, likely because I had dragged the bag on the cul-de-sac’s gravel roads. All that survived the bumping along Sandmere Place was an apple and a popcorn ball. But that was not the worst of that Halloween night excursion … the cheap, satiny costume had bled red dye into my wool coat, leaving huge stains, which the drycleaner could not remove. Money was dear in those days, so I had to wear the coat until the next season, which, by then, I had grown out of. My parents would often mention that unfortunate Halloween event in great detail when I was growing up. I would not don red satin for many more years … more on that later.
Since Halloween fell on a Thursday this year, I was sure I could find a photo of myself in a Halloween costume and label this post “Halloween Throwback Thursday” but, to my surprise, none existed. I went through all the family and friends photos I painstakingly scanned in two years ago, to no avail. As an only child, believe me when I tell you that through the years my father, with his 35mm camera, or Mom with her Baby Brownie, captured hundreds of images of their offspring. But unbelievably, not a single photo of me existed where I was dressed like a fairy princess, a hobo and not even in the fateful Little Red Riding Hood costume – shame on them!
The only costume photos of Yours Truly back in the day were my high school friends and me at our Millionaire’s Party. This was an event at our high school where we dressed up like characters from “The Great Gatsby” and paid to gamble with paper money at roulette, black jack and, if memory serves me right, slot machines. There were real croupiers that were brought to the high school cafeteria for the event. So we paid to play and all money raised from the event helped to fund our All Night Party on graduation night, June 13, 1973.
My mom must have taken this shot because the top of my head is not cut off. I was proud of my outfit which I sewed myself, even the small satin purse, sequined headband and garter, which I made sure to flash – this was the early 70s after all!
Through my teens and beyond, I always had my Kodak Pocket Camera handy, so I fished it out of my purse and handed it to my friend’s father, (alas, also short in stature, just like my father, who, at a half-foot shorter than me always managed to cut my head off whenever he took a photo of me). Looks like Linda Wilson and I lost the top of our heads, and, in her case, her updo, as we towered over our friends. This was a group shot of us girls before we headed to the event. (Sheila decided to don a fedora and borrowed her brother’s suit for her costume.)
It’s month end … time to mark my miles.
Well October’s weather was fabulous at times, meh at others and the last week or so, it’s been horrible!
I am glad I was able to boost my miles substantially during that wonderful week of warm and sunny weather and I walked my socks off, gleaning lots of steps in a short amount of time. Thus, I was really pooped sometimes after getting my daily, five-mile trek done. Whew!!
Dare I say that these five-mile trips in an hour’s time are for younger legs than mine?
After that week of beautiful weather, from one day to the next we dropped thirty degrees and the weather folks said “cover up your plants (and yourselves) as we’ll likely have a hard freeze tonight!”
I soon had a bone to pick with Mother Nature as I scrambled around to gather woolens, gloves, a hat and a hoodie, all items packed away since Spring, before heading out into the bone-chilling weather. Yikes! Here I am huddled under a hoodie, my teeth chattering.
I’m looking forward to the sun’s earlier appearance after this Sunday, so I can get out and on the road earlier. To gain steps, I’ve been getting home later and later and it’s been a mad scramble to get to work timely. This morning’s weather is abysmal! I wonder how there could be any rain left in those clouds and I’m already fretting over losing power due to gusty winds. Sadly, those beautiful October days are now in the rear view mirror and I’ll forge ahead to get those remaining 166 miles/267 kilometers done to meet my eventual goal of 1,242 miles/2,000 kilometers by year end. In recent months, my steps were on dewy morns on paths damp from an early a.m. rain …
… now there are leaf-slickened sidewalks to traverse, incidents of black ice to beware of, and soon, maybe even tonight, that dreaded, four-letter word “snow” will be uttered – oh no, please say it isn’t snow!
What about the status about my fellow striders on the perimeter path at my favorite nature nook?
Well, as is the case every year, slowly but surely, the regular walkers at Council Point Park are packing it in for the season, resorting to mall walking or using a treadmill in the comfort of their homes.
So, sometimes it is just little ol’ me trekking along my route to the Park or visiting my furry and feathered friends … who knows what dangers are lurking around the ‘hoods or the pathway at the Park?
Meanwhile, I’m trying to keep a grin on my face so I can get this goal accomplished.
On a separate note, I want to tell you that Mike Posner, the young man I profiled in my blog earlier this year has completed his trek. Mike’s 2,851-mile journey began by dipping a toe in the Atlantic Ocean in New Jersey on April 15th and walking coast to coast across America. He reached his final destination of Venice Beach and jumped into the Pacific Ocean to celebrate on October 18th. I followed Mike’s trek from Day #1 on Twitter. He had hardships along the way, like a three-week hiatus after being bitten by a baby rattlesnake in Colorado, but he persevered and got his journey done. He says he is a better person for making this trek and for the rich experience and continues to rise daily at 4:00 a.m. to meditate and practice yoga and is still walking, but with no more goals for the immediate future. This map on Mike’s Twitter feed shows his rigorous journey.
I am inspired by Mike Posner and will do my best to achieve my goal, hopefully striding purposely and not just muddling along in the bad weather. At any rate, I am reminded of this quote I saw recently and will make it my mantra for the remaining months of 2019:
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
That’s quite a Little Red Riding Hood story…sad you don’t have a picture, I bet you were adorable. I don’t have any pictures of me as a child dressed up either. I don’t think we had a camera until much later in life. I loved the way you knew which parent took photos. Nice job on the costume you made for yourself – very stunning indeed. I enjoyed your photo choices for your summary of the walking goal so far. That quote is perfect – and you’ve done a great job despite the weather obstacles, keep on keeping on!!! I’m off to the treadmill (dreadmill) and a good book to read to keep me ‘content’ without the warm sun and breezes from summer. Happy Halloween to you!!
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Thanks Shelley – I heard that story many times over the years, so I feel like I was there as an onlooker, not the hapless soaking wet LRRH. I’m going to do a post about photos over the Winter probably, about how I amassed so many photos and will include how he took photos. It wasn’t just when I got older/taller than him – my father was 5′ 3″ and my mother 5′ 2″ tall, (I am 5′ 9″ tall and was tall as a teenager); she didn’t cut my head off. He might have subscribed to a theory of not even thirds when composing a photo, but quarters … I was in one quarter almost out of the picture and 3/4s of the photo was landscape, background or the car. Most of the time, my head was missing. I’ve made photo boo-boos, but mostly trying to take a picture of an animal or bird or something on the move. Happy Halloween to you too – we have an ugly day and no walk for me, but tomorrow hopefully when the fierce winds die down I’ll get ‘er done, though he have some snow showers, but not enough to have to sweep/shovel.
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The older cameras were tricky to make sure too. You’re fortunate to have as many photos as you do. Stay warm, stay inside! Hope the weather turns nice by the weekend!
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I’m thinking Sunday is the best bet now – snow showers and rain for Saturday. Hope they are wrong!
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I hope so too!
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I remember those flimsy costumes. I had to wear a coat over them which defeated the purpose of dressing up but it was still fun twirling around in the house.
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Kate – I think it was more fun twirling around the house than traipsing around outside as it seemed like it was always crummy, usually rain. We are having just horrible Halloween weather. It has rained non-stop since early this morning and we now are ramping up the winds to 45+ this evening, then snow flurries … it can’t get much uglier than that. I was just on the crime forum on Facebook checking if there were any problems. The City imposed a cut-off for trick-or-treating at 8:00 p.m. and people are giving their addresses and saying “bring your kids – we have tons of candy or chips left.”
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The local areas around her designated last Friday for trick or treat and it’s a good thing. The weather was much better and warmer.
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That was a good idea – fellow blogger Laurie also lives in PA (Lancaster) and she said they rescheduled it to tonight (and then it didn’t rain until 10:00 p.m. after all) – they should have done that here too.
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We didn’t have Halloween in Germany back then, but they do now. I’ve never been a big fan of this occasion. For many years here in our Portland neighborhood we would get 250+ kids ringing the doorbell. People would drive their kids around in minivans and even adults would insist on their candy! Now we go to the movies and let others have all the fun! Happy Halloween Linda! 🎃
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I didn’t know that Sabine and I’m trying to recall if my father ever mentioned that fact since he was born and raised in Germany. That is a lot of kids – we never had more than about 50-60 at the most and 20 or so if it was crummy weather like tonight. The local kids hit the larger neighborhoods, and can get more candy that way. It was fairly quiet on the street – I heard no kids, likely as we had an all-day soaking rain; it has not let up the entire day and now it is getting windy. That is the best way to enjoy this holiday which they say is second to Christmas in money spent on decorations and food. Happy Halloween back at you!
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There wasn’t much traffic here last night and no one knocked on our door. I did leave the porch light off and I’m sure that was part of it. I came down with a bad respiratory cold and wouldn’t have wanted to pass it along to anyone.
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Yes, that was best and I am thinking that some of the kids and parents who braved the rain and cold, wish they had not.
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Sabine, another blogger and I were discussing treats at the shopping mall and I mentioned burnt sugar almonds. Years ago, there was a vendor who made these caramelized almonds and served them warm in a paper cone – they were delicious and a whole section of the mall smelled wonderful. Did you ever make/eat this German treat? https://www.thespruceeats.com/burnt-sugar-almonds-gebrannte-mandeln-germany-1446511
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Linda, I LOVE gebrannte Mandeln!! 😋 Lucky for me, my sister always gets a paper-cone or two of them at the Christmas Market and puts them into the Christmas box. I eat them slowly and savor every bite. I’ve never made them though. I think they’re best directly from the Christmas Market. The only improvement to the enjoyment of them would be to be there at Christmas time. I don’t think people eat them much the rest of the year. But then I don’t know for sure since I’ve been gone for so long and things change. Have you had those almonds?
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They are delicious Sabine and my mom and I used to get a cone of them to share every time we went to Frenchtown Mall. The vendor who sold them had a big kettle as I recall and you could watch him making them. They sold them as quickly as they made them. I just Googled to look and see if the burnt almond vendor was a franchise – to my surprise, the Frenchtown Mall was rebranded recently and has horrible reviews. Apparently they lost all their anchor stores and just a couple of food specialty stores remain – no almond vendor. It has been awhile since I was there. It was not near me, about a 50-mile round trip. That area of town had many outlet stores, so we would go on a vacation day a couple of times a year to check out food and clothing outlet stores. But, this small mall had the smell of the almonds throughout and yes they were wonderful.
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Lucky you to have had a vendor so close! I’ve never seen these burned almonds anywhere here! 🙂
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Yes, but I Googled around to see if they were a franchise and where they went after the mall rebranded, but couldn’t find them … they were not a huge store, just set up in one area of the mall. All I could find was recipes to make them, however, good old Amazon sells them, but they are out of stock right now. I’ll put the link below. Others love them too! When my father was here, we used to go to a German butcher shop to buy lunchmeat, sausage and their Dimpflemaier rustic bread. They used to carry a lot of German chocolate candies, like Christmas ornaments made from chocolate, ginger cookies, and advent calendars … I’ll bet if you have a German butcher shop they’d have it. Ours was Alexander and Pollan, but it went out of business a while ago.
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There is a German delicatessen here in Portland. I don’t go very often since I’m not a meat eater. If you have a Cost Plus Worldmarket near you, you can get all those Christmas cookies and candies, and yes, also the chocolate tree ornaments there. As for the burned almonds, I’ll enjoy the ones my sister sends and keep them special that way. 😉
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I agree – they are more memorable since they are sent from your sister. A friend of my boss owns a cheese store at Eastern Market in Detroit. It is a German store and when I still worked on site, after Christmas, he would bring in all the treats that he could not sell – we’d each take some home and left some for snacks at the office. I think if he had lowered the price on the treats, especially the chocolate, he likely would have sold more of them.
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Lucky you getting all those treats! I’ve noticed that a lot of grocery stores also carry those kinds of treats these days. I try to stick to Christmas with German sweets. It’s too easy to overdo! 😉
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It did used to be nice Sabine. David owned R. Hirt which was a store specializing in cheese and mostly German treats – it was known all over Detroit … Eastern Market is huge and people go there for specialty items and flowers for Flower Day. But there was a family dispute and they sold it and it is under a different name now and I understand not the same as before – my boss goes there a lot. My mom used to bake a lot at Christmas – I wrote a nostalgic post showing some of her recipes last holiday season after mentioning recipes and treats to a few fellow bloggers and I was taking photos of some favorite recipes to send them. That gave me the idea to make a post about it. Last year I just bought a few packaged cookies as I try not to have any other sweets the rest of the year … my friend Ann Marie stops at my house and drops off treats for Christmas and Easter and a big cupcake on my birthday. That is the only homemade treats that I eat. I won’t get anything from a Michigan bakery because of the Hepatitis A outbreak here in Michigan. I have not eaten out anywhere in a decade – it’s that way or get the two-part vaccine ($250.00 for the series). I’m fine with that. I’m not a baker or a cook as you know. 🙂
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What a shame that your Little Red Riding Hood costume, which I’m sure was cute, left memorable stains on your coat. That’s a bummer no matter how old you were. I’ve never heard of a Millionaire’s Party but you look great. I’m in awe of your walking goal, and I hope the weather cooperates with you. Do you have a particular reward in mind for yourself when you accomplish your goal?
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I think you will meet your goal, Linda. You have done a remarkable job of piling up those miles this year! I cannot even imagine walking 5 miles in an hour. That is moving! We walked at a 14 minute/mile pace in the marathon and even that was difficult to maintain.
Your Halloween reminisces made me think of my trick or treat nights as a young girl. I can remember in particular dressing up in a Daisy Mae (from Lil Abner) costume. I was disappointed that I wasn’t as beautiful as the “real” (cartoon) Daisy Mae, but I didn’t have the hips or breasts for it then! 🙂
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I was hoofin’ it to get the miles in Laurie and I drove to the Park most of the time since I wanted to maximize my miles. In the neighborhood, I have to watch where I’m stepping (uneven concrete) and watching for cars pulling out of driveways, so this way I didn’t watch for anything and could walk much faster. It takes me all Summer/Fall to get to that point … I’ve lost two days, yesterday and today, as we had torrential, all-day rains. I am still hopeful to make my goal and have two months to get there. They are predicting snow and very cold weather in two week’s time. We have snow tonight, but not measurable, just snow showers, but they said there could be a coating Friday morning, and maybe the same Saturday morning. I did what you suggested and am wearing the pedometer in the house – not cheating, but hoping for every step I can. In the past I wore it to shovel snow – every step counts as you near year end.
When I worked at the ad agency we had a company Halloween party and closed the office at noon. There was a $100.00 prize for best costume. Since Lincoln Mercury was our biggest client, the other secretary and I decided to dress like cars. She was very petite and I was tall, so she was a Mercury Bobcat and I was a Mercury Cougar. We figured we came as a set and would split the prize. We spent many lunch hours constructing our cars which were made of foamcore board and we had handles to walk and hold them with our hands. We wore them over our black turtlenecks/black pants. We had horns, license plates with our names and bumper stickers that said “We Love Detroit!” Our bosses even helped with some hardware (cassette reel-to-reels for wheels) and helped us spray paint the foamcore. We figured we’d win, but someone rented a devil costume and won – we were crushed. So I was going to use those pictures, but they had not scanned well – it was 40 years ago since that party and I thought it would be fun 40-year to the day lookback, but the pics were so tiny, I had to give it up. If I am in that cupboard and look at the hard-to-reach albums one day, I’ll try rescanning them for the 50-year lookback (OMG).
I do remember Daisy Mae and I sure could not have filled out her top either (still couldn’t to be honest). 🙂
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So sorry you didn’t win the costume contest! Your costumes sound much more original than a rented devil costume!
I hope the weather cooperates for you to get out and walk this weekend. There should still be some good days before the real ice and snow hit!
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We were disappointed as we were striving for creativity and I forgot to add that I worked in the Creative Department and we did all the car commercials, my boss was specifically the luxury cars, so I taped the 0:30 and 0:60-second commercials for the Cougar to loop and run over a half hour and had a small tape player under my car costume running while I was walking around.
Tomorrow looks good for the morning as of now – earlier today they said rain or snow showers. Sunday is good too. I have push myself for every day there is no ice/snow to bulk up my steps – five miles a day if possible as the ice and snow is coming. I took some Fall foliage pics last weekend as I had concerns about this week’s weather wrecking the leaves so will be doing a post about that soon.
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That’s so cool that you worked in the Creativity Department! No wonder you posts and photos are so creative.
Bill and I are hoping to do 6 miles today. It will be our longest run since the marathon. I hope the weather allows you to be out this weekend!
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Thank you Laurie and I have to tell you that I was beyond shy after moving to the States. First, working in the diner through college, then at the ad agency with all the art directors and writers … those two jobs brought me out of my shell. In 1978-1980 when I worked at Young & Rubicam, it was an age of no PC at all … people said and did what they felt like and it was a male-dominated workplace. They were a fun bunch though and I had a great mentor which I wrote about before … he wanted to help me up the corporate ladder and then we lost Chrysler and after we got Lincoln-Mercury, the new client wanted all the creative control and did not want our guys doing their own production of the commercials … so they moved on … half of our department did. It was not a happy time for our bunch as we all scattered to the wind.
I hope you and Bill got your six miles in Laurie. I walked at the Park, did five miles then came home and did over a mile doing all my yard work. I was out there til it was dark – with the exception of more leaves, I’m done with Fall chores … now if the weather cooperates for some long weekend walks. It was cold though, a real feel of 32 when I left the house to walk.
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Miss Linda……………………………………Wow…………………..you gave us some big surprises today……………..you looked absolutely marvelous in your Great Gatsby costume along with some of your HS friends from the ’70’s!!…………………..and I never heard of the singing phrase: “Shell-out, shell-out, the witch’s out!”…………………………..it must have been a Canadian thing!…………………..you did some strange things coming across the river, you know!………………..AND thank you for sharing the quote: ………be proud of your every step you take in reaching your goal!………………………..that’s very uplifting
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Thank you Ann Marie – I had just turned 17 in those photos when our high school had that event and it was fun – everyone dressed up from a bygone era, and I have a photo of two high school friends where one dressed up in a “money suit” … he took paper money and glued or taped it all over his clothing. I didn’t include it here as it was not pertinent to the story – I will send you the photo to see. Yes, we did not say “trick or treat” – maybe it is just a Canadian thing!? I like that quote – I am on Twitter as I follow a few weather sites there, plus some other sites, and I saw that quote posted the other day – loved it and had to share it. I know you, a fellow walker, would appreciate it, especially now as our steps will dwindle significantly due to the weather, though you have the treadmill as a back-up. I am late getting out this morning as it is so dark. I’m grateful for Sunday’s time change.
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WHAT!!!! I could never walk 5 miles in an hour. You are super woman!
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This time of year, I am able to make the really long or faster treks. I went like the wind earlier in October as I knew the bad weather was coming, though I didn’t anticipate all this cold and snow (even though it was light, it’s still snow and you cannot walk confidently or quickly) – it is no prize out this morning. Still very dark, so I’m grateful for this Sunday’s time change. I won’t make it down to the Park this morning – I suspect it is icy from two solid days of rain, and we had snow last night, but it seems like it only landed on grass and bushes, not cement, but our wind chill was in the teens overnight and earlier this a.m.. I missed two days of walking and so won’t overdo it today and will stay in the ‘hood (unless slippery) … I still have quite a few miles to get to year end and they said we have a couple of snowy and bitter cold weeks in November – ugh. (They could be wrong too.)
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You will succeed!
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Just loved this, having so much fun reading blogs I keep forgetting I need to write that second novel. Great post
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Thank you Barb – glad you enjoyed it … I know I can get seriously lost in blogging and be in WordPress for hours and hours at a time! Writing a second novel sounds fun …. good luck!
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What a fun read Linda. I am a little concerned about your health though – you are a little pale and thin in your photo (in the hoodie) are you eating ok? LOL!
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Thanks Ruth – glad you liked it. I think it is the lack of sun that makes me look pale like Swiss cheese and that extra hour of sleep tonight will cure those dark shadows under my eyes as well. 🙂
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Mother Nature gave out no treats……only tricks! I bet it made the witches fly around even faster!
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Yes Wayne – lots of people had candy left over and went on our Facebook City/Crime forum and were begging kids to come by and were giving out their home location – they said they’d end up eating all the goodies themselves and felt badly for the kids who had gotten soaking wet going out (and the parents were welcome to their candy/treats too). The witches had good broom-flyin’ weather for sure!
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I bet the costumes are still wet from the ones who did go out!
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You’re probably right – it was a soaker that night for sure!
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Poor kids must of been very disappointed.
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Yes, I think so too – they may have toughed it out in the rain (which was incessant and non-stop all day and evening, then it turned to snow at 9:00 p.m.) but we had high winds, so not good for the really young kids. Poor planning on Mother Nature’s part! There is a small movement afoot here to have Halloween celebrated on the last Saturday afternoon of October. It is light, people are not driving home from work and must worry about kids in the street as they drive through their neighborhood. I don’t see why they can’t change the date … they celebrate other holidays (Columbus Day, MLK Day, President’s Day to make it conveniently on a Monday so government workers have a long holiday, so do this too.)
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that won’t stop Mother Nature from crashing the party.
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That Mother Nature is a tough old bird sometimes – she wants her way … remember the old margarine commercials “it’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!” https://youtu.be/ijVijP-CDVI
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yes,I remember that…..unfortunately.
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That was a commercial everybody talked about and it became a catchphrase, like Wendy’s Hamburgers with Clara Peller shouting “Where’s the Beef?”or Life Cereal’s Mikey taking a spoonful and the other kids say “let Mikey try it” then … “he likes it!” I don’t know any of the TV commercials now because I don’t have cable so can’t get any TV stations.
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they do not have catchy commercials anymore. They all seem really dumb! I mute the commercials when they come on anyways.
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I feel the same way about the radio commercials and often they are overplayed and loud. I wish I had a mute button for the radio. My two music stations I listen to have “flipped” to Christmas music as of the first of November. That’s way too early and I’ll leave it on for a while until a screamy “new version” of a Christmas song comes on and off the radio goes then.
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they started playing dam Christmas movies in August! Ridiculous!
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Yes, agreed. Here it is so materialistic for the holidays and it used to be just between Thanksgiving and Christmas and now it starts long before Halloween. They are already announcing Black Friday sales and merchants worry in 2019 as this is the shortest possible holiday selling season because Thanksgiving is the 28th so minimal amount of time to shop – where’s the house on fire that you must go out on Thanksgiving Day to shop – you wipe your mouth and out you go for the sales?
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Corporations set the drum beat that we are suppose to march to,but just because they do…….doesn’t mean we have to!
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A rep from Best Buy was on today talking about the Thanksgiving Day specials on iPhones and flat-screen TVs. Three weeks in advance and on Thanksgiving Day when they are open 5:00 p.m. to midnight. Crazy. When we first moved to the States, we were amazed to discover that the postal carriers delivered mail on Saturday. and a few times years ago, when Christmas was a Monday, mail was delivered on Sunday. We learned that grocery stores were open Sundays – most were open 24/7/365.
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let the consumer season rain down upon us!
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It’s all too much – worse in the States as Thanksgiving kicks it off – having Thanksgiving during harvest season in October is better … the whole month leading up to Christmas is not all about shopping and excess in all forms.
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It proves that corporations do control the masses!
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That was so entertaining Linda! Where to start…..loved the Halloween pics and the commentary and the title. The Roaring 20’s dress was fabulous…..I’m sure it wasn’t easy to sew that fringe on the bottom. What a night to remember……it looked like so much fun. Your post brings back so many Halloween memories. I always hated those chewy Halloween kisses and saved them for last. I remember when my younger brother got to trick or treat with a plastic pumpkin and what a novelty that was. I’m not sure what we carried – probably bags too? I don’t remember any specific costumes, we were probably ghosts and witches and hobos. It’s probably a good thing you outgrew your coat the next year, as it was a permanent Halloween memory! All in all, a very creative post!
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Thanks Joni and I am glad I found a proper spot to include that Roaring 20s dress … all those years later getting dressed in red satin again, at least the red satin did not run this time. My mom was so mad about it. You/I likely went through the neighborhoods in the same ugly weather that Halloween night. Those chewy Halloween kisses would pull your fillings out if you had any, that’s for sure. I don’t believe I ever had a plastic pumpkin, just a plastic bag with a plastic handle on it which matched the costume that year – there was a picture of the character on the bag as I recall. Here in the States they use pillow cases for trick-or-treating and my mom was aghast at that the first year we were here (1966). Glad you liked this post – I had fun with it. 🙂
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My Halloweens were different in the country, as we knew everyone up and down the line, my mother drove us up to the farmhouses, where we went inside while they tried to guess who we were! The only year I trick or treated in town, we didn’t get past the front door, and all we got were apples as it was later in the evening. As we knew all our neighbours, we got homemade fudge and popcorn balls etc. So we probably didn’t get as much candy but it was better stuff! You could make your haul last over a week or two…except for those dreadful kisses which I always left until the end and eventually threw out. .
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It sounds way more fun in the country. They didn’t hand out as much on my street as they do/did here – when we moved here, I went one time with a neighbor (and that was my last year) and they handed out full-size chocolate bars and boxes of Cracker Jack and no peanut butter kisses. One person handed out quarters – that was big stuff. Here they hand out MacDonald’s gift certificates too … like two certificates gets you a small hamburger/fries. But that was because someone told us to go to Buckingham Street where the big houses were.
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PS. I loved the quote too!
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I thought it was inspirational as I try to get to year end.
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