REMEMBERING HALLOWEENS PAST

Being the mother of two grown sons I've never had the opportunity to observe, first hand, the thrill and excitement of Halloween through a little girl's eyes. But from the experience with my boys and their little friends I always thought the little boys were by far more into trick or treating than the little girls. Having a young granddaughter now, and from my observations many years ago, the little girls all just want to be a princess or anything else "froo froo" that requires lots of makeup and frills. The little boys, on the other hand, would start planning WAY in advance and come up with anything and everything from a prince to the ugliest monster that ever breathed fire!

Pumpkins were the first priority starting in early October. We had a farmer outside my hometown of Lillington, NC that raised pumpkins for sale. He was a truck farmer and this was before there were pumpkin farms that catered to the general public. Mr. Blanchard (the farmer) would let us come out and pick through his carefully tended rows of wonderful pumpkins until we had just the right ones. Our thing was carving those suckers! Therefore we picked out the biggest and weirdest ones we could find. My boys would have the best ol' time running up and down those rows hollerin'... "Come look at this one!"..."This one's got warts, Mama!"..."This one's so big we'll never get the stuffin' out of it!"..."Can this one be mine, Mama?"...on and on with lots of laughs and a few spats over who picked the best one. All in all we would usually get about 10 of the biggest ones Mr. Blanchard had.





Then it was home to keep those punkin's cool til it was carvin' time!  We learned from trial and mostly error that you don't carve punkin's til' about 3 days before Halloween.  Come a few nights before Hallow's Eve the boys would help ol' mom set out the jack 'o lanterns and Halloween was ON!  Oh, how I miss having the young ones in the house for Halloween.  Always too much candy eaten and usually on a school night.

Those were the days and now I'm in my old lady years and tend to want to cut my lights off and eat what candy I've bought all by myself!  Living in an older neighborhood we just don't get many trick-or-treaters here.  Some years 10 or 15, some years 1 or 2.  If the young parents today knew how many memories and how much joy it brings to us older ones they might reconsider bringing their Princesses, Ghosts and Goblins to an older neighborhood.....takes us back to earlier times when we were the young parents...worn out from gettin' those younguns dressed and made up and traipsing all over the neighborhood...to return home and tuck in those sweet babies with their tummies full of sweets!


Yeppers...me and my boys had a good ol' time back in the day!  Sure do miss my own little goblins.  Here's a little somethin' from me to you...click the link for scary action:

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/Vy4PXBhkJwjGlKN5

And, tomorrow night get your best candy out and be ready to enjoy the children....I mean the ghosts and goblins...and fairy princesses...I STILL think boys have more fun on Halloween!