HALLOWEEN

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. The people who like to create, I believe they also like Halloween and Easter as well.

When I was growing up in the “housing development” in The Bronx, we would have to be creative with our costumes. Finding old worn out shoes, hats and anything we could get our hands on. Please note you have to ask your parents if the items were suitable for donations to our cause!

 Side note: We did not know how economically poor we were, but none the less we were rich in community and family values.

I would ask my mom for some of old make up that were either the wrong colors in her free samples or just that the shade were off by a lot! This would make the best corpse completion. Let us not forget the black eyeliner to complete the look.  My younger brother was always subjected to my required participation whether he wanted to or not. His costume was always the same, a Red Skelton inspired Hobo. It was complete with the sloppy clown makeup, oversized clothes, big shoes and a stick with a sack tied on the end. We would go door to door in the building where there were seven stories, seven apartments on each floor. It was good, clean fun. No worries of sorted grownups and bad behavior. The scare of razor blades in candies has been around since there were “trick-or-treating” in the urban big cities.

The years passed, I got married and had children of my own, who once again were subjected to my required participation! By this time I had a better budget. I bought “proper” costumes because my sons would have it no other way.

 We went out in neighborhood, but very little participation. I think it was the neighborhood had changed. The influx of new immigrants who were not familiar with this holiday made for slim pickings. We would make our way to the malls where the shop owners would give candy to the little ones.

Nowadays as a grandmother myself, I wear a homemade costume with a funky wig and give out candy. I have crazy decorations in front of my home that lets the neighbors know I HAVE CANDY ON HALLOWEEN! Some of my neighbors do not speak English very well, but I always try to lead by example. Most all of them want to be American citizens, and do what Americans do, celebrate holidays from different cultures and putting personal family spin on them. Tailoring the holiday and making new traditions. It is always a pleasure and gives my heart joy to see the little one say “tricktree”…

By the way, what happened to the “tricks” instead of the treats? Trick----or---Treat?

..Pandora [Twilight Zone Music]