Besides the costume choices each year, what has really changed when we celebrate Halloween?  Remember when it was against the rules to have Halloween on any other night but the 31st?  And you really weren’t supposed to start until after it was dark?  And was the cutoff time determined when candy was gone or when the trick-or-treaters became few and far between and the house turned off their porchlight? 

I do remember that one of the goals was to try and get to as many houses as quickly as possible.  And to try not to fall down into the gulleys that were in the front of a lot of the houses.  Who needed a flashlight, even though we didn’t have street lights?  And, didn’t you feel just a little disappointed when you were asked “who are you supposed to be” when it was obvious to you that you were a ghost or goblin or a hobo? 

When I was in grade school, my grade school friends Luke and Freddie Prindle decided one year that the little plastic bags and pails were too small.  So they both brought pillow cases.  I was impressed on the school bus in the morning but they didn’t look so good on the ride home that afternoon.  Happy Halloween.   — Bill Dollar