The last day of October has multiple meanings for me. It's All Hallows Eve, or Hallow e'en and it's the anniversary of the day I married my former and only husband. There was not a lot of demand for the use of the church that afternoon in 1963, and we did not have a Hallow e'en themed reception or Rocky Horror Picture Show type costumes. Instead, there was cake and tea as befitted a family with Methodist roots and, at that time, a lot of older teetotal relatives.
In fact, there was a fair bit of family frowning about Hallow e'en customs. When I was a child and my great-grandmother lived with us, she terrorized the neighbourhood children by inviting them in and then sternly demanding that they perform a trick before they could leave. Quite a few of the children left without doing anything, and so they collected no candy. I guess that saved some money. And thrift is a virtue, or so I'm told. I truly do not recall ever dressing up and going trick or treating, door to door.
When my daughter was old enough to be out for Hallow e'en she quite enjoyed the experience, or so she led me to believe and when she had children, they also participated in the ritual until they were in their teens. I tend to think that trick or treating should be restricted to children twelve and under, but perhaps that is just my crotchety protestant background getting in the way of what might be appropriate for this generation.
Hallow e'en is definitely a time when people can go all out with their make-up and costumes, the more outrageous, or sexy or scary, the better and that is my segue to - Do You Need Spackle to Sparkle. Yesterday at the supermarket checkout counter, I was possessed by one of those small urges that lead to small regrets later. I bought a copy of Good Housekeeping magazine. I still don't know why I did it and must beg to be excused for such uncharacteristic behaviour. As many of you no doubt know, such magazines can often be perused in under ten minutes. There was one legitimate article about Gabby Giffords (the congress woman). Then there was this faux article - Is Your Makeup Aging You? Hmm, well, all I use is lipstick, occasionally, and blusher, once in a great while, but maybe it could learn something. I did. I learned that there is a face moisturizer or "a hydrating primer ... Laura Geller Spackle Under Make-Up Primer... original or luminescent." I had to reread the promo to make sure I wasn't learning about crack filler and wall paint. If you are going to paint your face for a Hallow e'en party the luminescent base would be appropriate ($27.50).
I plan to stay home and read a book on Hallow e'en night. What are you doing?
10 comments:
I would have loved your grandmother - I do the same, because really, I could never give candy away just for dressing up in a costume!
I'll be trick or treating with my niece this year, it's her first and I plan to show her the Nightmare Before Christmas right after...if she's still awake!
Happy Halloween:)
Anne, After my experiences as a kid, I decided to give out candy indiscriminately when I was in charge of the goodies.
I give out candy without making them perform for it. I had to do it when I was a kid for certain people in the neighborhood who were like your grandmother. I didn't like it. It felt embarassing, so I don't do it to anyone else. So, I'm like you Diane, I give the candy out because they 'spent the time to dress up for halloween' and they look great! :)
Interesting to read about the US custom as it hasn't really taken root over here.
My parenting question... What does it teach kids about morals as regards the tricking option? Give me what I want under threat of blackmail, or I will do something nasty to the front of your house, or your car tyres?
Giving kids sweets for making the effort to dress up seems fine, but I was always a bit dubious about the rest of it. Maybe I'm just getting old...
To be honest I don't really have to worry about it as its not a big thing over here, although my twin is throwing a party for his son to enjoy the whole thing.
My current plans will mean that I'm enjoying, like you, a cracking good book. Not sure what I'm going to read at the mo but I'll find something I've been looking forward to.
This year I'm buying just one box of candy (we've had too many leftovers in the last couple of years) to hand out to the kiddies. We're on a court, so a lot of people just can't be bothered coming up, I guess.
As a kid I trick-or-treated until grade 9; my own kids stopped after grade 7. I do think it's inappropriate for teenagers to be going door-to-door (even tho, thinking about it, they're just big kids inside, no matter how they look on the outside). Most of them can't be bothered dressing up. And I think we can ask at least that much of them.
When the candy runs out, the lights will go off. Don't know what I'll do at that point, but cracking open a good book sounds right.
I love that you were married on Halloween...I would have done it if it had fallen on a weekend the year I got married...but it didn't...so I settled for Oct 16 instead ;-)
I'm going out trick-or-treating with my daughter and a friend from work (and her kids)...we take our Timmy's double doubles and splash a little something extra in there to keep us warm ;-)...it's loads of fun!
Halloween was my maternal grandmother's birthday and boy was that a mismatch. She didn't make kids perform tricks but she didn't approve of Halloween. Like your grandmother, it may have had something to do with her Methodist upbringing, though she was Southern Methodist.
The condo complex I live in doesn't get trick or treaters so I don't have to deal with it. At my school, the older preschool kids can wear their costumes to school on Halloween. My class is 2's and 3's so we are having a jammy day. I get to my jammies to work! One of the perks of my job. :D
I love your description of the makeup. It really did sound like wall spackle. I mostly wear makeup for big occasions - weddings, funerals, job interviews, etc. The rest of the time, my concession to makeup is painting my toe nails.
Spackle -- I know. It's crazy what they dram up for us to buy.
Lol I love the part about your Great-grandmother but did no one point out that it's trick OR treat, not trick AND treat? hehe!
Our Halloween was very muted this year. Normally I throw a party because no one else in England seems to recognise Halloween as a holiday. Here in America I thought it'd be all over the place but it just seemed...hardly anywhere. So hubby and I ate home made pumpkin pie (made by me!) and spooky cat cookies by the light of our pumpkin lantern :)
Wasn't the way my Halloweens normally are, but it was good none the less.
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