I don't like Halloween. It's my least favorite 'holiday' on the calendar. Why? I'll tell you why. Because I don't like things that 'go bump in the night'.
I enjoy the costuming, so long as it is a Disney character or an inventive costume. I do not like to see the kids or adults dressed like ghouls and vampires or other beings that cause little ones to shudder and me to have nightmares! I really do like to watch the Halloween parades of children and parents and teachers strolling past dressed as angels and fairies, butterflies and robots, artists and old people. It's an amazing fashion show, but those devils and evil monster masks give me the shakes.
When I was young, I was scared of spooky shadow shapes, and I'm afraid that I must thank some Walt Disney cartoon for that. Remember those scenes where the trees, or the shadows of them, would run after a victim? It left a lasting impression.
I don't like Halloween much because of the over dose of sugar that we all ingest at that time. There must be some safely packed, healthy snack that is available to pass out or collect, but when I've shopped, all I see is candy and sweets. When we were kids, we'd get plenty of sugared things, but we also knew it was safe to eat the fruit or popcorn or homemade cookies that our neighbors placed in our bags.
Call me old-fashioned, but I'd really like to see Halloween less glorified. I wish it would be a time when home parties would be held, with dunking for apples and popping corn, and having costume contests. The unsafe practice of running across streets in the dark in dark costumes, bolting from house to house begging for someone to throw treats into a pillowcase is much less appealing to me. My memories of childhood Halloween festivities include house parties, and they sit higher on my list than any of the ones where I was racing through the neighborhood with my friends.
Well, it's here...the dreaded night for goblins and ghosts, and I'll just have to go with the flow. It's only one night a year. To get myself in the spirit of things, I think I'll dive into the Reese's Peanut Butter cups and watch an old video ...Hocus Pocus, with Bette Midler would probably be appropriate.
