Ghosts, Goblins, and Grandkids

Halloween’s over and we have spent a day either nibbling at the leftover candy or sneakily taking pieces out of our kids’ or grandkids’ stashes. (By the way, they notice; they’ve counted.)

I loved Halloween as a kid, but have never really been excited about dressing up as an adult. I think I did it once. I was invited to a Halloween party – costumes mandatory. So I borrowed nursing scrubs from a friend, put a stethoscope around my neck and called it a costume. However, though I can be cranky about some things (remember my all-things-pumpkin post), dressing up in Halloween costumes isn’t something about which I’ll pick a battle. I’m in favor of having fun.

My grandchildren looked forward to Halloween for weeks. One of my 5-year-old granddaughters asked me to count the days for her every time she saw me. What could be more fun for a kid than to dress up as a favorite character and get candy that your parents actually let you eat?


We were big on trick-or-treating as children. In the Midwest, you could almost count on it being cold and probably snowy. Our parents bought our costume which, in those days consisted of a plastic, frightening-looking mask (even if you were Snow White it was frightening) that you couldn’t see out of and a suit made of a highly flammable slippery material brightly colored with a lead-based dye. But you really never got to show off your costume because you had to cover it with a heavy winter coat. By the end of the evening, we had to toss away the costume because it had frayed to nothingness, which is why any of us ever lived past childhood. Nowadays parents seem to be a bit more creative about their kids’ costumes. Just more stress in the life of a busy parent.

And we had a route we followed every year. Up one side of our street all the way to school, and then back down. When we were a bit older, we ventured into the “rich area” on which our neighborhood bordered because you would anticipate better candy (which never really held true, but you might get a peek into their house). There was one house we all visited in which an elderly woman lived alone. Every year, she gave out gourds which she had grown in her garden. Gourds. A totally useless produce item. Inedible. Not particularly pretty unless you have an arrangement of five or six alongside a haystack. But every year we would trick-or-treat at her house. Go figure.

I didn’t go out with the grandkids this year as they trick-or-treated. Instead, I stayed at their house and handed out the candy to the kids that came to their door. It was a nice night, and it was fun to see the variety of costumes. In a true confessions moment, I have to admit that I also ate almost all of the Twizzlers that were in the basket. No one’s the wiser.

My grandkids all had really cute costumes. I must admit I’m partial to the pirate and his parrot/brother.