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]
This took me to "back in the Day"
ReplyDeleteHalloween is one of the best holiday and i always enjoy to see people on this special day. Specially make up of the people is awesome.
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