When I was 9 or 10 or 11, it doesn’t matter exactly when, the best days of the year were my birthday, Christmas and Halloween in that order. Birthdays and Christmas were when family and close friends gave me presents. Halloween was that extra special time when total strangers, sort of, gave out treats to a wild and weird assortment of costumed characters that came up to their door and yelled out their demands.
The fun began in the preparation. You couldn’t just go out as yourself. You had to go in disguise. Now our family wasn’t well off and we lived in a community that wasn’t well off so we tended to put on pretty much homemade costumes. I remember best the time I went out as a pirate. In Edmonton on the 31st of October we could count on it being cold and snowy so first I had to get on my winter clothes. Then over that came the disguise. No self-respecting pirate would be without his sword so dad made me a nifty wooden one that I stuck into my pirate belt – one of dad’s finest with a huge buckle on it. And of course I needed something on my head so mum rigged up one of her gaudiest scarves. Then a black patch over one of my eyes and lots of black all over my face from a cork that was held over a candle for a few minutes. Messy, but effective. I tucked one of my toy pistols into my belt for a bit of extra protection and I was ready to hit the streets.
“Halloween Apples!” The cry for loot came from our back door. In Edmonton we didn’t shout out “Trick or Treat”, we all yelled “Halloween Apples!” Don’t ask me why. That’s just what we yelled. Mum went to the door and there was Gordie Lepine, my best friend. He was a ghost and had on an old bed sheet with 2 big holes where his eyes were and slits in the sides so he could get his arms out for the loot. He gave it away by yelling out excitedly, “It’s me, Gordie. How do I look?”
“You look scary Gordon”, said mum, putting a candy kiss into his bag.
And off we went into the dark for our night of treasure.
The rules were simple. You went house to house, walked up to the main door (the one with the light on) and yelled out “Halloween Apples”. The owner had to open the door and put a treat into your bag which was usually a pillow case. They usually were scared out of their wits by the horrible goblin, ghost, witch, pirate or worse that greeted them and wouldn’t dream of paying us off.
The loot consisted of tasty treats, usually chiclets, candy kisses, suckers, peanuts or apples. The little kids went with their mums and dads who waited out by the road as the kids went up to the door. The bigger kids like Gordie and me went alone and ran from house to house so we could do more doors. Sometimes we would bump into other friends and we would exchange the red hot items of the night. “The Kostashes are giving out popcorn balls.” Or “Candied apples over at the Pickerings” which would result in a departure from the regular door to door routine and we’ld run off to get the extra big treats before they all ran out.
Probably half the houses we would go to had jack-o-lanterns in the window, huge carved out pumpkins with a scary face and a candle inside. And every now and then we would come across a house with no lights on and no one answered to our cry for loot. That ignoring of the night raiders usually came with a price. The older looters, the dreaded teenagers who sometimes helped themselves to a handful of goodies out of other kids bags, went out with a bar of soap and a jar of water in their bags. Soaped windows was the price you paid for not paying tribute to the hoard. Now this isn’t too bad a trick to play on someone in summer but try getting it off your windows in winter when it’s frozen solid.
No one set up times for the evening but usually the night ended around 7:30 or 8. After all, the next day was usually school. So before too long all the goblins and witches and pirates went home.
Finishing off the night at home was almost as good as the collecting. That’s when my sisters and I would dump our loot out on the floor and see what we got. I might have done 40 or 50 houses that night and I had enough treats to last me through until Christmas.
Long John Silver never had it so good.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Jenny says:
I loved this story, Rick. It evoked the atmosphere - the cold, the excitement, the hoard of treasure - very powerfully.
I wasn't quite clear on the explanation of what the "trick" was, and how the teenagers fit in - were they stealing your loot or soaping windows? - so that section could have been a bit more structured.
The last line was just perfect, and tied in the costume with the overall tale. As someone raised in a warm country with no Halloween tradition, this is the first time I have ever really understood the appeal of running around the streets in the snow, begging from strangers - which makes this a major accomplishment!
Heather says:
Boy, did you rekindle Hallowe'en for me, Rick! It wasn't exactly like this out in the country, but sure had this flavour. And it WAS exactly like this when I went into the city to trick-or-treat with my cousins. (But we didn't say "Hallowe'en apples").
I loved the flow of the story -from your first sentence about the best days of the year, through to the excitement of putting together the costume, the dressing up, the wonderfully social evening, and that beautiful count-the-proceeds ending. (Probably gave me my taste for business!)
A simply told story that just really captured it.
Kerry says:
This is a wonderful story Rick. A real slice of social history told straight from your heart. I really got how exciting it was for you and how much fun. I was only ever the parent on Halloween nights vicariously joining in the excitement from the footpath but I can see how much more exciting it is for the children.
Thanks for all the vivid detail.
Post a Comment