Halloween

When we were children, I lived in a neighborhood in Framingham, Massachusetts, where we knew everybody. The other mothers would keep an eye on all the children playing near them and would call my mother if we did anything wrong. Halloween was a fun time. We had a box full of costumes from years past; a rubber mask of an old man with a cigarette hanging from his lips, which made a great hobo costume with some old clothes; a black cat costume, suitable for a small child; a sheet with holes cut into it for a ghost. Every year we rummaged in the box and dressed up, to go forth into our neighborhood and Trick or Treat. Halloween was simple then. You carved a pumpkin, disguised yourself, and went out to beg for candy. We came back with huge bags full of it.

The holiday changed over the years, with people starting to spend more and more money on decorating their homes and costuming their children, but spending less money on candy. Who needs all that sugar, anyway, and most of the children who came to the door were not even from your neighborhood. For us, Halloween became just a lot of work once the children were a little older. So it was with great joy that Bob and I had the chance to share Halloween with our grand-niece and grand-nephew in a community celebration.

Our little "Elsa" and "Woody" were all dressed up and ready to party! There were pony rides and railroad hand-cart rides, plus a little trick or treating from booth to booth of neighborhood businesses, as well as music, a petting zoo, and loads of people in costumes. Such fun, and much better than going house to house. I like the way Halloween has evolved.

We had a nice visit with my niece and her husband, my sister and my brother-in-law yesterday. It's going to be a great week!

By the way, people ask us what it's like in a campground on Halloween. Well, it depends on the campground. If you are in a KOA, there will be Halloween parties, trick or treating, and people decorating their rigs in spooky themes. If you stay at a campground catering to the over 55 crowd, not so much. There's often a potluck dinner with entertainment, and costumes are worn by some (but not all, by any means.) A state park may or may not have a party going on. If Halloween is a holiday that you look forward to, it doesn't hurt to ask what the tradition is when you make your reservation.

Same goes for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, etc. We like to be in a fairly large park for those major holidays, where there will be a celebration pot-luck meal. There are some good cooks on the road and we can enjoy a feast. The rest of the holidays we can do without all the hoopla, but that's just us.