Shannon’s BodyBlog

When I was a kid……

Halloween used to be so different than it is now for my own kids.  Or maybe they’re too young now and will later have SOME of the same kind of memories I do when they’re let off on their own to trick or treat:

1.  Remember the crappy plastic costumes with the crappy plastic masks?  Good luck making it down the concrete steps of someone’s house with that mask on without tripping and falling and blasting holes in your costume.  No way would we flip up the mask to see better.  We weren’t authentic super heroes if you could see our faces.  But we couldn’t really be authentic with those costumes on anyway, and Under Roos didn’t help much because they only had super hero print on the front.  No way could I be a real Wonder Woman with a blank back….not that my parents would’ve let me wear my Under Roos outside anyway….but I tried to convince them.

2.  My mom would forget to buy candy and would give out spare change from a big bowl.  I was mortified that we didn’t have candy to hand out, but kids seemed to love it because then they could go to the deli and buy….candy.

3.  Sorry was the house that handed out anything healthy like apples, or anything homemade like popcorn balls.  We didn’t do anything bad to the people who handed them out, but the communication network made it known from child to child which house not to go to.  We’d take the apples we received oh so graciously with a "Thaaaaank yoooouuu" and proceed to chuck ‘em down the hill and see whose would reach the bottom the furthest.
4.  Anything homemade was a virtual pincushion and we were convinced that even our parents best friends were out to impale our throats from the inside with pins and needles and fish bones….whatever it took, people.
5.  As soon as my brother and I got off the bus, we’d race inside, don our costumes, and make our way from house to house immediately.  By that time it was fruitless because everyone was working, but there was a housewife home here and there and we’d start our candy eating extravaganza.  Then we’d come home, wolf down a shitty dinner, and head out again until 9 p.m.  We took our chances staying out that late because the teenagers came out to mug any child who was carrying bags spilling with candy.  We would hear rumors throughout our travels and nervously made our way home safe and sound with no one to mug us except for our pimp parents………

6.  My brother and I would stash our favorite candy in our coats that our mother made us put on OVER our costumes, but that we’d shed off our backs and stick on someone’s front lawn once we went around the corner out of her line of sight.  Our parents were candy pimps and after us children walked the streets and came home with our earnings, our parents would pick through and take what they claimed looked dangerous because maybe the wrapper was too loose.  But we knew they were just taking what the wanted to EAT from our hard earned loot.  Although we were happy to let them have anything with almonds in them like Almond Joy and Hershey Bars with Almonds.
7.  The biggest downer was not being allowed out the night before Halloween for Mischief Night a.k.a.  Goosey Night or Tic Tac Toe Night.  (Don’t ask me who came up with those names in our town).  I thought I had a chance to get out one night when the Sunday morning before Mischief Night, I saw an episode of Davey and Goliath where Sally and Davey went out for Mischief Night.  Eureka!  If THEY were allowed out, then I would HAVE to be allowed out too!!  They’re super religious and goody-goody, so my mom would have to be convinced that it was OK to let me out.  NOPE.  Dammit.  She never let us go out :S

8.  Us neighborhood kids wanted deeeessssperately to have a spooky witchy kind of neighbor to be afraid of.  We targeted the house across the street from my house because they never handed out candy and they never answered the door.  We were convinced something evil was brewing inside.  My father heard my brother and I talking about it once and he explained that they were out working hard to pay for their mortgage (he always had to explain why people worked hard) and that they weren’t home because of that.  Sorry dad, WRONG.  They were up to hocus pocus shenanigans.  No doubt about it.

9.  Eating candy for weeks on end….or maybe it was for days….you know how childhood memories go.  Eating the favorites first:  Mary Janes, Pixie sticks, Fun Dip, those little dots on the paper that you’d peel off and eventually had a spit wad worth of paper backing in your mouth, etc , etc ,etc ,etc, etc, etc.

Today, I live in a town that imposes a 2 hour trick or treating limit from 6 p.m. to 8.p.m. and my kids have access to the most awesome costumes at Wally World.  I ENVY the authenticity of what they have offered to wear.  I wish they had costumes like that when I was a kid.  AND their parents are eating clean now, so there’s no one to pick through their loot.  AND they get to pick their favorites to eat and trade the rest in for an addition to any collections they have like baseball cards, or they pick out a toy.

Breakfast:  1 whole egg, 4 egg whites

vegetable broth

Snack:  apple

cottage cheese

Lunch:  1/2 baked sweet potato

cottage cheese

Snack:  cottage cheese

1/2 pomegranate
Dinner:  2 whole eggs, 3 egg whites

whole wheat toast

3 slices lean ham
romaine salad

This entry was posted on Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 5:01 am and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.