My First Halloween

I remember so well the first time I ever went trick-or-treating. It was 1962 and I was five years old. My parents made my older brother schlep me around with him and his friends. (Boy, I bet he was thrilled, LOL!)

My costume consisted of a small plastic pointy clown hat secured under my chin with an elastic band and two large red dots of lipstick on my cheeks for clown makeup. Oh, and my winter parka and boots, of course. It's cold in Manitoba on October 31st.

My brother taught me how to go up to each door, hold out my bag and say "trick or treat!" I couldn't believe that people would just give us candy -- how great was that! In those days, most people handed out suckers, apples, peanuts in the shell or those godawful molasses Halloween Kisses in the orange and black wrappers. But if you scored big, you might get a homemade caramel popcorn ball!

It was soooo scary to be outside after dark! Dry leaves were blowing around in circles on the sidewalks, making an eerie rustling noise. Small groups of masked children ran from house to house, sometimes in pools of light, sometimes in darkness. Disembodied voices and giggles were heard on the wind. The occasional jack-o-lantern flickered and glowed in the night. What a thrilling experience it was!

The scariest thing for me now is realizing that those memories date from 50 years ago. Where oh where have all those years gone?