Updated 1 year ago
Relive the nostalgia of Halloween past and the lost sense of community. From razor blades in candy to door-to-door tricks, society is losing its way
Let me take you back to the good old days.
This last Halloween was my first Halloween since the 80s that I gave out candy. Yeah, I was either at college, in NYC, or hibernating from the world. But now I have decided to go all in on the holidays – I think it helps with the passing of my father. So we carved a pumpkin, had the scary old Disney haunted house record playing, lights, candles.
We had probably 4 or 5 groups come over the whole evening. I had to sit outside and tell cars, yes, we were giving it out. I was thinking a huge glowing orange sign that said WE HAVE CANDY was in order.
Some neighbors across the street said kids go to richer neighborhoods, or they go to parties at church or whatever. Maybe that was it, I held out hope. Still, I felt a lump at the back of my throat.
It felt so different than when I was a kid. We would knock on every last door demanding those treats. And if they had their light turned off and hid from the kids, we thought they were mean, and would consider eggs or toilet paper. Maybe even a game of baseball bat on mailboxes, or a mailbox bombed with pool cleaner and aluminum foil (don’t try that at home, kids).
Of course, if they ran out of candy by the end of the night, which always happened, they would turn their lights off – but if it was early, there was no excuse. The early bird got the candy.
The point is, things have devolved such that those mean people are now everybody, and playing tricks on anyone will get you shot or arrested.
We adolescents subconsciously understood Stockholm Syndrome, and how to weaponize it. It was a delicate social balance.
And it was even more back and forth with boomers as kids. Soap on the windows. Back in the 30s it was BRUTAL.
So each generation devolved a bit further until all this stuff was sanded down and sanitized.
And yeah we heard that rumour about the razor blades in candy, but we didn’t care. Sugar is life.
I feel like our society lost something – a communal, shared sense of holiday. Kids today have it rough. Maybe someday there will be a VR of a Gen X childhood, and with BB gun wars with no eye protection and everyone having a Bowie knife, it would be just as visceral and violent as any game of Call of Duty.
All that said, I’m making gingerbread men this Christmas. Get off my lawn.
