I love Halloween. All of it. Well, most of it. I don’t do haunted houses. Paying to be scared is bullshit. Anyway, Halloween is just a fun holiday. It may actually be one of my favorite aspects of being a parent. Once I had a kid, I went all in on Halloween.
Now, I did not have 30-foot skeletons in my yard, but I did decorate, spend way too much money on my kid’s costume and dressed up to go trick-or-treating with her. I loved every second of it. I have been a witch multiple times, a ghost, and a cowboy. Once my mom went trick-or-treating with us dressed as a bumble bee. That was epic.
Other traditions include carving pumpkins and roasting the seeds every year while momma drank her special “pumpkin juice.”
We trick-or-treat in the cold and the rain as well as some beautiful fall evenings. I loved each one, although I could have lived without cold rain.
Trick-or-treating was so different with my daughter than it was when I was a kid. For starters, we have always lived in a great neighborhood for trick-or-treating. I grew up in a very rural part of Ohio. There was no walking around the neighborhood trick-or-treating. We had to pile in the ole wood-paneled station wagon and drive around the county. It was an epic endeavor that lasted for hours.
Despite the time commitment, the rewards were pretty great. A lot of these places didn’t get many trick-or-treaters so they handed out bags of candy. Oftentimes we managed the holy grail of trick-or-treating—full-size candy bars! My dad liked to steal those, but I got good at hiding them.
The quality of the candy was also excellent. Sure, you got the occasional Smarties or Swedish Fish crap, but I recall lots of Reese’s Cups in my plastic pumpkin. I had to hide those from my mom. That woman is like a bloodhound for a Reese’s Cup.
Some of my best childhood memories are Halloween as a kid. My favorite was when my sister and I dressed up as clowns in homemade costumes made by my grandmother. We were not scary clowns. We were adorable if I do say so myself.
Along with trick-or-treating, I love a fall festival. My elementary school had the absolute best Halloween Carnival. It was my favorite day of the year—I think I loved it more than Christmas. There were games, a costume contest, bobbing for apples—everything! I looked forward to it all year.
My daughter also had some good fall festival action when she was little. She was the queen of the cakewalk. I looked forward to hers almost as I did as my own as a kid. Sometimes on the day of her festival, I would dress up in costume to pick her up from school. She loved it when I did that. I was the coolest mom.
Halloween is just a good time. The pressure is low and the fun reward is high. My daughter is 18 now, but she still loves Halloween and so do I. This is one holiday I hope we never lose our enthusiasm to celebrate—even if it is to just hand out candy to the next generation of little goblins.
Angela Traver
What is this blog about? Well, it's a general blog, but it is also a very specific blog. If you get that reference, you get a gold star! I have been a public relations professional and writer of press releases for more than 20 years—primarily in the booze biz. I decided to do some writing for fun and embrace the humor that gets me through most days. Hopefully it will make you chuckle—or at least smile. I’m a certified crazy magnet, and more than a little nutty myself, so buckle up. Also, I have two vices—profanity and red wine/whiskey. You’ve been warned. It should also be noted, that I’m a HUGE Bob & Sheri fan. I’ve been a listener for more than 20 years. This opportunity is a dream come true and it may have made me cry. That being said, I cry at everything. If you are into booze, dogs, food and/or knitting, hit me up on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter (although I’m terrible at Twitter and it scares me) @kyspiritsgal. You can also find all my previous blog posts at www.kyspiritsgal.com.
