Hey everyone. Tomorrow is Halloween and I’m using this opportunity to stock up on candy. Not for the trick-or-treaters but for us. We are huge lovers of all things chocolate. We are apartment dwellers so there will be no kids knocking on our door on Monday night and no decorations on our lawn. Since my son is all grown up now, he will not be trick or treating and neither of us celebrates Halloween anymore so after I get off work things will be pretty boring at our place. But it wasn’t always like this for me.

When I was very young and impressionable, I did get dressed up for Halloween. Usually, I dressed up in a princess costume that always came with a mask which was pretty hard to wear over a pair of thick glasses. I’d be taken trick or treating by either my brother Michael or my mother. My friends never joined me except on one occasion which was the most fun. Unfortunately, Halloween always fell on a day when it was raining and cold outside so my mom always made me wear a coat over my costume which I hated.

Back in those days, there was no fear of going door to door to strangers’ homes. It was the 70s and it was a safe neighborhood. You could walk for miles at night without being attacked. Not that people didn’t get mugged on the south side of Chicago. But it wasn’t a frequent thing. My brothers and I did it all the time and our faces never wound up on the back of a milk carton thank God. I grew up in a co-op called London Town and it was friendly with all of the homes looking the same with many of them having a big backyard for us kids to play in. The neighbors were always friendly and looked out for each other’s kids.

I was invited to a Halloween party and dressed up like a witch on one rare occasion. The party was at a neighbor’s house across from ours and although I wasn’t much of a partier because I was very shy and quiet around kids I didn’t know; it was still fun. We also had a party at school too so I had two parties on the same day.

 I rarely watched any horror movies on Halloween but one night I decided to watch the movie Halloween (The original). I am not sure how old I was at the time but by the time the movie was over I was terrified. It was my first slasher film and nobody in the house noticed that I was watching this. But it was regular television so most of the swearing, bloody violence, and nudity had been cut. Yet Michael Myers still scared the hell out of me. I was afraid to go into a dark room after that because I could swear, I could hear his ominous heavy breathing in the darkness, and he was going to jump out and kill me. Not cool people!

I guess I miss being a kid. Life was so much simpler then. Being an adult is a bit of a struggle and I don’t like it all the time. I miss running and riding my bike around the neighborhood with my friends. I miss climbing the trees in the playground and sliding down the hill on sleds during winter. Playing ball and hide and go seek with in my opinion were some of the best friends a girl could ever have. I still talk to some of them but now that we are adults and have families of our own, we don’t have the time to chat like we did when we were young. But If I could see them one last time. I would tell them to thank you for helping to make my childhood fun and that I love them very much. I was kind of a nerdy-looking kid back then but they looked past that and became my best friends. Some kids aren’t so lucky. I was bullied all through school but I never let it break me. I knew who my real friends were. Have a great Halloween everyone.

Until next time…