Throwback Thursday for Halloween

It is the end of my monthly Throwback Thursdays and Halloween so why not combine them?  I was thinking today as I ready my house for an impromptu Halloween bash that my neighbor thought I should have that this is one of those days where we as parents come full circle.  I read on Facebook that my hometown had talked about pushing trick or treating to Friday since rain is in the forecast for today.  As long as I can remember we had either cold weather or rain on Halloween and we went door to door anyway.  Our parents made us wear coats when it was cold and rain coats and umbrellas when it was raining, and as soon as we were out of their sights we took it all off because hello! no one could see our costumes!  Now as a parent I would probably do the same if I lived somewhere with cold weather.  "You'll catch a cold!  You'll be sick!"  There is always a part of me that remembers my youth, but then that part of me is shushed by the parent part of me.  It is a vicious argument.

Tonight I am allowing my youngest to break from the parental hold and trick or treat with friends in another neighborhood.  Oh, the fun we always had when our parents let us run free.  She will too.  And her parents?  We will now play the role that our parents played.  My driveway is the center hub for four neighbor couples and two of my friends where we are having trick or drink.  I am serving two different rum punches, chicken tortilla soup, appetizers and everyone is bringing candy to pass out to those who dare come up my drive.  Of course, it took some time to realize that our parents were sharing booze and candy in one's driveway while we ran the neighborhood begging for treats, but I learned from the best and why not emulate this trait as well as the others?  Happy Halloween!

The first costume I remember was one that I have use to have a photo of, but that was one of those pictures that got lost when our basement in Indiana flooded.  I was a skeleton and my neighbor friend, Davy, was Casper the friendly ghost.  My costume was one of those pre-fab costumes that you put on over your other clothes with a matching mask.  I really and truly have a nudging memory of that costume that I don't think comes from the pictures I use to look at over the years.  I always remember being in store bought costumes until I was old enough to start coming up and designing my own.

These pictures above are from when we lived in North Carolina for ten months. My outfit is an old dance outfit from a recital I had when we lived in Pennsylvania. 

I do remember carving pumpkins every year with my dad.  He was very meticulous in his carving.  First we cleaned out the pumpkin with our hands and spoons.  We always had newspaper spread out and we would dig in with our hands and squeal about how gross it all was.  I would squish the pulp and seeds between my fingers and watch it ooze out.  In the beginning it was all so much fun, but by the eighteenth handful we would lose interest and my father would use a spoon to clean it all up.

Then he would draw on the face with a black marker.  Our faces rarely changed.  I liked the triangle eyes and upside triangle for the nose and the jutted, scary, toothy mouth.  After the face was drawn on, he cut it out following the pattern, and giving us instructions on being careful to follow the lines.  When the face was carved he always trimmed the top so that it would fit back on the pumpkin.  Inside would go the candle and we were allowed to take our pumpkins into our rooms at night to use as a nightlight.   My mother's job was to wash and dry the seeds and then roast them in the oven.  Then we would eat them.  It was all very exciting!

I tried to continue the tradition with my kids, and while they enjoyed it some when they were little, the tradition isn't the same when living in a hot weather climate.  The pumpkins can not be cut early like we could do a week or so before the holiday.  Pumpkins in Florida have to be cut almost the day before because within 24 hours or so the black mold over takes them and they shrivel down into tiny shrunken pumpkin heads.

Madison wasn't too sure about all the Halloween stuff her first year.  I bought the costume at Target and painted on her nose since she wouldn't keep the fake one on.  She thought the feet part of the footed costume was odd, but she did walk over to the neighbors to get something delicious.  We only went to a couple of houses to visit neighbors that first year, but by the next year she was a pro and insisted on walking and walking and walking the neighborhood; our own and her friend's.

Madison's grandmother made the M&M costume for her second year and she went trick or treating with my Steelers buddy's daughter, Brianna.  We all met in Lamaze and Brianna and Madison got to be buddies because the parents enjoyed one another.  (We still do!)  I remember it was very hot that night we walked their neighborhood and Madison was sweating inside her M&M sweatshirt costume.

One of the traditions that we had with our kids was going to the pumpkin patch to select the pumpkin to carve.  It started with my mother who saw a patch one day while we were driving with Madison and we pulled over to investigate.  We continued that each year whether it was with Grandma, us, or friends.

One year the girls and I went to a friend of ours from school to cut pumpkins.  He had kits with exotic designs while his son, Cameron, and Darcy lost interest pretty much right away and went off to play,  Madison and I worked and worked on ours.  We enjoyed having something different instead of the faces.

Darcy wore the same clown costume when she was old enough to get around and trick or treat.  She wasn't as impressed with the whole thing as Madison had been, but she kept her costume on for a bit.

Madison meanwhile went through her phase of princesses.  She was sleeping beauty, and snow white, and Jasmine.  Her grandmother made the Jasmine costume and it was a favorite in the dress up box for years.

After that Halloween we began the trick or treating at our house with our friends and the pictures became the "red wall" photos which I have posted on this date for years and so I won't post them here now.  This will be our first year without the gang as everything comes to an end.  Madison stopped dressing up and roaming the neighborhood last year.  Darcy will probably stop next year.  In the meantime the parents forge on with trick or drink.  Coming full circle.