HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Well, the last day of October has finally arrived! The air is brisk and the wind blowing...it is definitely a fall day! Little ghosts and goblins, pirates and princesses are all excited...they look forward to "trick-or-treating" hoping to bring home a bag full of candy which they hoard as their secret "treasure"!

But are our kids today really able to enjoy the "Halloween of Old"? The answer to this is "no"! Looking back to my childhood Halloween was great fun...friends got together and we went to the school carnival all dressed up and participated in cake walks, dunk the teacher, holding hands as we went thru a "haunted house"! We went door to door, ringing doorbells and hollaring "trick-or-treat", holding out our bag for the goodies sure to come. I remember our favorite house was a little old widow woman who always made special treats for the kids..homemade brownies, carmel corn, and candied apples! How many times did we keep going back to that house...those treats were great!! We were all given a curfew to be home by but heaven forbid that our parents would tag along on our adventures that night! The only mischief that may have occurred was a raw egg was thrown at someone (NOT something) or a house was toilet papered...although the neighborhood jumped in to help clean it up!! What a world we lived in back then..........

Our parents did not worry about poison laced brownies, or razor blades inside of apples....they did not worry about shootings or knifings...they did not worry about someone forcing us into a car, about disappearance or molestations of their children! We were allowed to be kids...we had fun, but we also obeyed the rules that were set down from our parents.

In today's society, however, we cannot allow our children to do the things that we did as kids...to enjoy that little bit of freedom without a constant threat hanging over our heads and theirs. We cannot allow them to eat the homemade goodies that we looked so forward to receiving when I was a kid...hospitals are now set up to x-ray candy for goodness sakes!! What has our society turned into?

It is great to see the malls and churches getting involved and having somewhere that parents can bring their kids to have fun...the mall allow "trick-or-treating" at the individual stores and many groups have activities for the kids to enjoy, the churches play bob for apples, tell stories and have activities! And as great as that is, my heart is still heavy for "Halloween of Old"...where kids could be kids without fear!

We need to reflect back, not just because of Halloween, but because our society has been corrupted...how and why did this all happen? How can we change it? Thoughts to ponder for another day......another post....but until then...

Have a Safe Halloween!!!