Hallowe’en was yesterday, and Little Man went trick or treating for the second year. Last year, he was dressed up as Scooby Doo, this year I made his costume. I took a $1 clearance sheet from WalMart, cut it out, quickly stitched it together, and boom, he was a ghost. Now, he did not like the hood I made, so we did not put it up, but he begrudgingly wore the thing.

We drove to the closest town for a trunk or treat. This was a new experience for me; one of the churches had about a dozen parishoners parked in the lot with their trunks open and decorated, handing out candy. We did walk down the block a bit as well, doing some old-fashioned trick or treating. Little Man really did not enjoy it at all. He didn’t like any of it, and only enjoyed waving and saying “Bye!” as we left the cars and houses. Yes, it was chilly, about 32F, but that didn’t stop us from having a quick trip out. Growing up in the Chicago area, I’m used to planning a costume that will work with or without a parka underneath it.

As we pulled into town, the first thing we noticed was all of the children out trick or treating. Yes, the little ones had mom and dad with them, or grandma and grandpa, but the majority of them were on their own, doing their thing. Almost every home in town had their lights on and front door open, or a table set up in the yard. Parents stood in small groups, chit chatting, while their kids ran down the street, getting their treats at all the homes. There was a good assortment of treats as well; the usual candy, rice krispie treats, string cheese, juice boxes (so many juice boxes!).

It brought me back to my years out trick or treating. When I was in first grade, my younger brother was in kindergarden, and he was a dinosaur for Hallowe’en. My gramma walked him to school, carrying his tail because it was so heavy! The following year, he was a robot, and he could not walk up the stairs to some houses, so after a few tries of some of our friends trying to lift him up each step, we started leaving him at the bottom of the stairs, and we took turns telling the homeowners that he couldn’t walk up the stairs. We would grab his candy, and then see what it was; if we liked it, we would keep it for ourselves, “accidentally” dropping it in our bag. We would then dig around for something we did not want to give to him. We trick or treated through sun, rain, sleet, and snow. The only barriers were the main streets – we could not cross them. After we were worn out from all the running around, we headed back home to pour out our bags and sort the candy. We had a complicated system set up to do the trades, and anything neither of us wanted we gave to our parents. My mother would usually bring the candy to school with her to give to her students.

Those days of trick or treating have been gone for a while, and the past 10 years or so, I have noticed a big decline in how it was done back near Chicago. Most homes are dark and empty, fewer kids are out and about, fewer costumes are being worn by the kids that do go out. Last year, I took Little Man to 5 houses by my parents house, to visit the neighbours and let them meet him. Speaking with one neighbour 2 weeks later, we were 2 of the 8 total trick or treaters that stopped by. This year, there was about 4 inches of snow, and my parents got no one.

I’m glad to see the tradition of trick or treating is still alive in the small rural towns. We could have gone the other direction last night, and gone to the bigger town, which had so many trick or treating events set up! Maybe next year we will check them out; this was the perfect quick outing for us.