Halloween is around the corner and it brings back some memories to me, not all of which were good. We grew up very rural and our nearest neighbor was about a mile away so the community really did not do the trick or treat thing. My first Halloween costume for the school party was a pink princess gown. Fourth grade I was super girl. Those are the only 2 costumes I remember having.
We had moved to a more populated area in 4th grade, and all the kids had told me about our next door neighbor Mrs. O'Conner. They said she always gave out good things. That year was our first experience with something called racking. For those of you who do not know what racking is it is when they take shelled field corn and throw it on your porch before Halloween. My parents hated it and had yelled at the kids for doing it several times. The kids did not pay any attention so one night when they started racking my dad took his gun out into the yard and shot it into the air. He yelled the next damn person to throw corn on his porch was getting shot. Needless to say they stopped that night. Dad would never have shot a kid but the threat worked. The ironic thing is another neighbor was going to do the same thing but dad beat him to it.
They did start racking again the next night. My parents came up with an idea to get even with the kids that had thrown the corn. They had taken special notice of who was throwing the corn, and Halloween night my parents had their own trick for these kids. My parents bought a bunch of peanut butter kisses to hand out. Part of the kissed had a surprise. My parents removed part of the peanut butter and loaded the centers with hot pepper. Every kid that came to our door for trick or treat had to take their mask off before they were given any candy. The children that had not been involved in the corn throwing were given the good untouched candy, and the ones that had thrown the corn were given the hot pepper loaded candy. They wanted to play tricks well they got the trick turned around on them. The odd thing was not one kid ever mentioned getting hot pepper peanut butter kisses that year.
I really wanted to trick or treat that year. I wanted it so bad I begged my mom to just allow us to go to one house the next door neighbor all the kids had talked about for weeks. Mom would not let us go. I remember I cried I wanted it so bad. That was a really bad year for me it was also the year my mom finally let me know the truth about a couple fantasy figures most kids believe in. I wonder if parents realize when they do things like this to kids they are messing them up.
I finally got to live my trick or treat dreams vicariously when my niece got old enough for me to take her trick or treating. It was not exactly like if I had been able to go myself as a kid, but it was the next best thing.
My neighbors daughter was terrified of old man masks. She had been frightened by one when she was a baby and it stuck with her. When she was 9 or 10 years old I finally got her over the fear. A couple of her friends had old man masks. She freaked out when she saw the coming toward her. I made them take the masks off to see it was her friends . Then I told them to let her feel the masks. Once she realized they were rubber she was not afraid of them anymore. People need to realize young children may be traumatized but the trappings of Halloween we take for granite. We need to realize children have not developed the ability to tell fact from fiction like an adult does. Be safe and have fun this holiday season.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE.
