Halloween is supposed to be for kids, right? Well I haven't appreciated Halloween as much as I do now. I always enjoyed gathering a pile of candy as a small child but it seems like as I got older I learned to have so much more fun...usually at someone else's expense unfortunately.
As a older child when you know instinctively that you are too old to go door to door for candy, it's natural to start thinking of other ways to have fun. And looking back now I think we were moderately bad kids on Halloween. We didn't do any real damage but we certainly raised hell.
There was the year that we gathered an incredible amount of acorns from the old oak tree and pelted cars passing by...not with just one or two. Oh no, we dumped hundreds of acorns on those poor cars and then ran like our butts were on fire for the cover of the nearby woods. One guy actually slammed on his brakes; got out of his car and gave chase. He never had a chance of catching us..we knew the woods too well. But he certainly gave us a good scare. We decided not to do that one again. Unfortunately we got worse from there.
The following year we made a dummy...a sort of scarecrow I suppose. My parents didn't object. It got rid of a lot of the leaves in the yard and it seemed like harmless fun. They had no idea what we would eventually do with that dummy.
Back to the hill with the huge oak tree we went. And I'm a little ashamed to say we threw that dummy high into the air, timing it just right so it would land on some poor woman's windshield as she was driving by. Thankfully she didn't have an accident but she might have come close to having a heart attack. As soon as we did it we knew it was the worse thing we could have done. Once again the driver got out of the car and we started running for the woods. She didn't chase us however, she just clutched the side of her car and looked like she was going to cry or faint or something. I'm sure she thought she had just run over a person. That was a terrible thing to do to someone I know that now. But at the time we were stupid kids and thought it would be funny. We never did that again.
A few years later (I think I was a Freshman in high school) in art class I had a friend of mine help me make some gigantic wings. They were beautiful...made with heavy gauge wire and multi-colored tissue with glitter on them. They were a magnificent pair of wings if I do say so myself. The only problem with them was that they had a very small wooden block for a base and I had to attach straps to actually wear them. Eventually I came up with a plan for them. It involved wearing an old black graduation gown with the wings strapped on top. I don't know what I was supposed to be but I hit the streets dressed like that as soon as it got dark.
It wasn't long before I realized that all the kids out trick or treating were terrified of me. They never got close enough to see that I was human, they just ran...some of them screaming. It was great! I walked all over town with that outfit on and a couple of friends in tow...keeping to the shadows and suddenly looming out of the darkness when people showed up. I even had my friends hunch over and walk a little crap like while making a moaning noise. I guess I was still a rotten little kid at heart.
Many years went by and my Halloween consisted of taking my own kids out to trick or treat. Some of the magic went out of Halloween when I became an adult. I still enjoyed seeing some of the really imaginative costumes but there were no more pranks left in me. We had fun...but it was of the harmless type.
Now that my kids are grown I'm feeling a stirring again....a desire to really enjoy Halloween again. No, I'm not going to bombard anyone's car with acorns or throw a dummy on someone's car. I doubt the law would have much tolerance for that kind of stunt these days. I'm more into making cute costumes for my granddaughter and dressing up myself for Halloween parties. And I've discovered that most of the clubs/bars around have some sort of Halloween party going on, usually with costume judging and prizes as well. The past two years I've gone to two places and had a great time at each place...still seeing all kinds of costumes and also having fun dancing and getting reacquainted with some ghouls; witches; vampires and all manner of scary creatures that I grew up with. As it turns out I'm not the only one that enjoys Halloween as an adult. Maybe we're all just a bunch of kids at heart.
This year I was dressed as Maid Marion and my side kick was a flapper from the roaring 20's. And we met the piggy that said weeeee all the way home; a ghoul; a few gangsters; a criminal and a cop; and all manner of witches; devils; vampires and even little old ladies with toilet paper stuck on their shoe. There were fairies and cowboys dancing with wrestlers and snake charmers. It was nothing like the old days but it was just as much fun...and nobody got pelted with acorns. :)
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