Trick or Treat Memories

I'm not sure what kids make of Halloween anymore. I notice that each year it seems that younger and younger kids are being forced by their parents to get stuffed into costumes they don't understand to go out and beg for candy they probably don't want. I don't mean to be a killjoy, but honestly, if you can't even say the name of the holiday it almost stands to reason that you're not going to have much fun with it. A lot of the kids that stop by my house are unable to even utter the words "trick or treat" without serious coercing by their parents, and often just reach into the bag of candy and silently take one before toddling off into the night. I just feel as though, like everything else, this kids' activity is getting to be more and more about the parents' wishes and less about the kids.

Granted, it's nice to see the reduction of older kids prowling around. The days of pubescent boys skulking about looking for pumpkins to smash and windows to soap seem to be pretty much over. That kind of stuff has probably been passe for teens for about fifteen years. When you have a job and a girlfriend and maybe even a car, those kinds of juvenile acts don't have the same type of tough guy cool they used to. Ahh, the good old days...

I notice that the trend away from a "scary" Halloween continues though. I used to bemoan the "hobos" who would win costume contests in my town, year after year. Yeah, when the pagans first envisioned All Hallow's Eve, I bet "Freddie the Freeloader" was the perfect symbol of the spirit world's last chance to take over the world. While I don't see many hobos anymore, I see a depressing amount of superheroes and celebrities and politicians roaming around in search of sweets.

Again, it's not really the kids fault. Kids are mostly just sheep anyway, following whatever trends they see their friends following or are brainwashed into following by the massive TV commericial bombardments. Parents need to take the time to explain to kids what the holiday is all about, just as they should (and generally don't) explain that Christmas really has nothing to do with a $500 light bill and endless buckets of discarded wrapping paper and cooking tons of candy and sweets that no one will ever be able to eat. But it's just so much easier for us all to keep on the same old dreary track of diluting the original intention of these traditional holidays, contorting and perverting them so as to fit more easily into modern day capitalistic thinking. I suppose such dilution is inevitable, but it's depressing nonetheless.

It's depressing, really.

I'm not that old, only 41, but it sure seems as though in the relatively short period of time since I was young enough to trick or treat, our culture has changed in so many ways. Is it just the natural pull of nostalgia that makes me bemoan all the changes? Do I just resent getting older and yearn to go back to those days that weren't necessarily better but just simpler? Perhaps. I"m open to any interpretations. But I don't think it's a subjective observation to point out that electric pumpkins and light sabers and Coors Beer endorsements have come pretty far afield from popcorn balls, "tee peeing", and white sheets with eye holes. It's just the typical diminution of meaning that we see with just about every holiday, and it's so sad to witness.

Then again, we don't hear stories about tazor blades in apples anymore, either, do we? I guess as the huge thundering foot of history treads on, it takes with it some of the bad as well as the good. Maybe as things change we tend to remember the good things that are gone easier than we do the bad things; maybe it's the way the human mind works. Maybe like so many other parts of our life, it's the youth we miss more than the trappings of youth. When you are young, you are immortal and life stretches out before you so grandly and infinitely; perhaps everything associated with that feeling becomes positive in retrospect.

Or, maybe pumpkin lights strung from trees just look damned silly.