"Whatever Happened to - Old Time Trick or Treat...?"

“How about being Hobo’s?” I asked

Jimmy answered, “Nah, we done that several times already.”

“Yeah, I guess we have.” I said, “So, how about a being Pirates?”

“Hey…! That would be great.” Jimmy exclaimed excitedly.

October had finally arrived and it was decision time to decide what kind of costume or character we wanted to dress up as to go Trick or Treating. Throughout our youth, we had dressed up as Ghosts, Hobos, Robots and even Vampires on Halloween Night.

It was a special time and us kids loved it. Halloween had a magical feeling of fun and mystery to it. From the time you started putting your costume together, to walking up to that first door and saying those Mystical word,” TRICK OR TREAT.” Most of the time you never knew what each house was giving out for treats, so it was always the unknown that was exciting. We did know some special houses that gave the same thing every year. One house made the biggest and best tasting homemade popcorn balls---Ever…! We NEVER missed that house. Another sweet lady made homemade chocolate cookies. They were small cookies and she put them into little brown paper bags, they were so gooey and good. I will never forget the special smile on her face when she would ask each one of us, “And who are You supposed to be?” We would always laugh and tell her who and what we were dressed as.

Jimmy and I got on our bikes and headed for the 5 & 10 Cent Store. We would spend a long time circling the counters looking at all the Halloween things that were displayed. Rubber knives and swords with fake red blood stains on the blade, tall pointed witches’ hats with stringy gray hair coming out of the back. There were several sets of vampire teeth, some that would glow in the dark, all kinds of mustache’s. There was so much stuff that it was hard to decide on what to get. They had kits of fake blood and grease paint makeup. Yuck, I can still smell the heavy odor of that stuff. We didn’t like it because it didn’t feel good on your skin and was so hard to get off.

We wanted to get some Pirate Hats, but they cost a little more that we could afford, so we found a way to fold them out of newspaper and painted them black with some old paint we had around the house. As for the makeup…Yep! Moms wonderful eyebrow pencils and mascara. For blood…you guessed it, Finger Nail Polish. We even made some pretty good hooks for our hands out of coat hangers. No matter what we decided to go as, we always had so much fun working on the costumes. We would all share ideas on how to be creative and make some really nifty costumes out of stuff we had around the house.

I do remember the first, and only actual store-bought Halloween costume that my Mom got me. I was pretty young but I really loved that costume. It was a Space Man Outfit, with a helmet and everything. You stepped into it from the back and it had ties to close it up with. The helmet was made of the same cloth as the suit was and just fit over your head. I not only wore that costume for several Halloweens but I played Space Man throughout the year for several years. It finally had enough wear and tear from a lot of use, that even I knew it had to go.

Not all of the houses put Halloween decorations out front, but a lot of them did. Back then you could hang a Paper Skeleton on your front door and put a bunch of Pumpkins out that had scary faces carved into them. We cut black spiders out of construction paper and stuck them on the bushes and hung them from the roof with string so they would dangle in front of the door. It was always so much fun coming up with things to decorate with.

We would go Trick or Treating in a group and we didn’t take small sacks to collect the candy in…No Sir’rie…We took “Pillow Cases”. Sometimes we would collect so much candy that we had to go back home to empty them and then head out for more. It was a great sight to dump all those goodies on to the table and see all the different kinds of gifts that our neighbors gave out. Everything from popcorn balls to candy coated apples. It was so much fun and I think that we collected enough candy that lasted us well into January of the following year.

It was always a wonderful and magical night of excitement as we dashed from house to house and watched all the other kids in a myriad of different costumes, laughing and running through the neighborhood. Today, it’s so different and we hardly get any kids coming to the door saying those Mystical words,” TRICK OR TREAT.” But even today, the memories of those times return every October.

I hope you have some great Memories of the Costumes you made and the fun you and your friends had on Halloween Night.

Have a Blessed Day

Fred Kienle