Halloween Then and Now

Halloween is a fun holiday for me. It's been interesting to watch it evolve through the years. Some things today are so much better; others... not so much.

There was no easy way to rent or buy a quality costume back then. There were only boxed costumes from the dime store. They consisted of thin fabric (I'll call it 'fray-on') with skeleton bones, or a Superman emblem, or whatever, printed on the front. The mask was a plastic face held in place with a flimsy elastic thread. One night wearing a dime-store mask and a fray-on costume was enough. After that, I 'planned ahead' for all future costumes.

There were accessories one could buy for a do-it-yourself costume. I recall hats of all kinds. There was also face paint, wax teeth and lips, and the most awful wigs imaginable. I remember seeing a black 'wig' that looked like piles of pocket lint dipped in black paint, then glued to a piece of flimsy burlap. It was far scarier than the witch costume it came with.

Today's costumes are so much better. Click here to see selections from Party City's website. You'll see what I mean.

Which brings me to the candy. They handed out BIG candy bars in my childhood. They were about the size of the ones in vending machines today. It's been interesting to watch them shrink through the years. Today's 'fun size' is barely fun at all. Candy was far better back in the day.

Trick-or-treating has evolved over the years too. I grew up in the free-range era, when kids went out to play every day. I knew all the neighbors and their kids. We lived on a dead-end hill, so the trick-or-treat route was up one side of the street to the Murdoch's place, down the other side of the street to the McClellean's house, then home. (With extra time at the Swenson's, because they dressed in costumes to hand out the treats. Cool people!)

These days there is still door-to-door trick or treating, but not so much. The problem is that people don't know their neighbors. People trick-or-treat at malls rather than knock on doors because it's safer. Yesteryear was better.

So... yesteryear wins for treats and trick-or-treats, 'today' wins for costumes. The final comparison is media, and 'today' wins, hands-down. We used to just have Charlie Brown; now we have that, plus Simpson's Treehouse of Horror, and Nightmare Before Christmas. Speaking of which... time to go watch. I have my couch potato costume on already. It's very comfy.