I can't believe that I can remember my very first Halloween. I can't find my keys, can't remember what I ate for lunch yesterday but I can remember my first Halloween. I think I was four years old. As my mom got me ready I didn't understand but it was fun. She put lipstick on me, that I didn't like the feel of but she showed me how I looked in the mirror. I wore her Sunday hat and her jacket, I know now it was a swing jacket. So I went out my first Halloween as a fancy lady in lipstick and grown up lady clothes. Halloween costumes for the next few years were similar but then my sister and I wanted real store bought costumes. Store bought wasn't as realistic as it is these days, the costumes were made of crepe paper and often didn't last the evening but we didn't care--they came from a store, were brightly coloured and lasted us long enough to get some good treats. As our bags grew heavy we didn't mind that the costume was in tatters..it had served its purpose.
Our bags were paper shopping bags or if we were lucky an old pillowcase. Pillow cases were better because they were stronger but Mom didn't always have one for us and we couldn't convince her to give us a good one from the linens. There didn't seem to be any plastic bags, just paper shopping bags and although large, these things had their perils. You couldn't put the bag down to rest or it would pick up moisture in the night air and develop a hole which quickly grew large.
It must have been a safer world in the 1950s, my mom took us out for a few years but then I took my sister out while mom stayed home and shelled out treats. We stayed in groups with our friends who were also alone, and the only thing we had to watch out for was bad boys who would try to steal our candy.
The treats we used to get were mostly sticky molasses kisses, Tire St Catherine, and I remember my favourite was peanut butter kisses. We got the occasional red candy apple too, a good tooth rotting treat! We never ate the apple part.
Many people gave plain old apples which I didn't like, they made the bag heavy and who wanted apples anyway, you can get those at home. One year, my mom began to search the apples for razor blades and pins. I wondered why people would bothe r to hide bad things in apples. If they wanted to harm children, the best place to hide that st uff was in the candy. We had to sort the candy when we got home, unwrapped was thrown away, coins were counted, apples were taken to the kitchen for inspection and baking into apple pies.
Peanuts in the shell ususally filled a large mixing bowl. Children didn't have peanut allergies in those days, we ate the peanuts. Not too many bags of chips or chocolate bars while I was young but we would find penny candy and gum balls. They went in the miscelaneous bowl. Candy sorted, we were allowed to enjoy it for a while and then were sent off to bed. That candy disappeared quickly, as a yougster I didn't figure out that my parents ate most of it.
Ok, I took license with the theme. I was supposed to talk about 5 costumes I had but couldn't remember 5...it was a very long time ago...so I told you 5 things about my early Halloweens.
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