Is the werewolf becoming a lap dog? Has the vampire lost it’s bite? Are the ghouls goners, the ghosts living on borrowed time, the monster from the dark lagoon all washed up?

Where are the kids, the witches and hoboes, goblins and ballerinas? Where are the cries of “trick or treat”, the giggles in the street, the occasional screech of teen aged girls in the dark under the trees?

(I miss Halloween)

Now, when I was a kid, I admit Christmas was the big Kahuna, but Halloween was a close second. I mean, the spook night happened just for us kids, and mostly by us kids. Mom never decorated for Halloween, Dad never hung lights or bought special bags of oranges or that horrible ribbon candy for Halloween. It was all us kids. We found the ragged old clothes and the lump of left-over charcoal to make our perennial hobo costumes. And we set out alone on the dark street to terrorize ourselves and the neighbors (who, of course, didn’t recognize us at all) into giving up treats.

Yeah, treats! Back then, as often as not, we got a home-made popcorn ball or apple, or even, and the thought of it still brings to my memory a bitter smell of cocoa, a small saran-wrapped piece of kitchen fudge with pecans. And we kids got the big paper grocery bags, and rolled the edges down so we could carry them without spilling.

The bigger kids helped the little ones, and no parent ever thought about going along on our street. No one had ever heard of “luminaires” or whatever they call those paper bags with candles in them, and nobody carried flashlights. That was before after-school TV programs and video games. That was back when we played outside, and we kids knew every inch of every yard, the exact height of every clothesline, and every dog and it’s mother by name. After all, we had played football, baseball, cops and robbers, hide and seek and just plain old laid in the grass watching clouds in every neighborhood yard a million times.

And Halloween was ours. We knew the turf and we made the rules. If the front porch light was on, the grown-ups still were willing to play. I remember walking for half an hour, just to get to that last house with a porch light on, and hear that thrilling “thunk” as a single Dum-Dum landed on the pile in the bag.

Sometimes the grown-ups would dress up a little, just to show us kids that they still had “it”, and one year, Mr. Johansen fixed sort of a spook house out of army blankets hung over wires. You had to walk through the darkened tunnel of blankets to get to his door, where he answered wearing fake teeth and a white face with green hair. It was so great, we went over and over again, not even taking any candy.

Halloween was a holiday that didn’t mean anything much to anybody but us kids. It was ours, our one night to howl; scary faces and free candy. What more could a kid wish for?

But tonight, on this Halloween a near-half centruy later, we’ve had six trick-or-treaters. Six. I gave them handfuls of Jujyfruits and Smarties, told them to be careful on the steps and watched them until they disappeared into the darkness, my memory going along one more time, cheeks smudged with charcoal and sweat, cutting across the bushes to save time and get to the next porch light and the next treat. I sat on the porch for a while, petting the cat, and breathing in the Halloween darkness. I ate a Tootsie Pop and finally blew out the jack-o-lantern.

But, I think I’ll leave the light on just a little longer.

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-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), October 31, 2001

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-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), October 31, 2001.

The office manager at our school gave me a tootsie pop to eat during my final. I think that's what put me over the top. It was lovely. SEND MORE!

-- helen (how@many.licks.to.the.center), October 31, 2001.

Well, I guess we know who's the teacher's pet!

Got an A, huh? Why didn't Igor find a brain like that for me? I think I got one that Greybear had already put a hunnerd thousand miles on.

'Course, I can't complain, at least both my feet point the same direction, and the ladies at the Halloween party really loved to twirl my bolts! SNARF!

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-- Lon Frankenstein (evil@the.bayou), October 31, 2001.

Are they real bolts? ... Or do you have a pair of them fake (french- type) Canadianinainaina metric ones?

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), October 31, 2001.

For the first time ever, we did not get ANY trick or treaters! None. And others I know also had none, or just a few. It was a day filled with clouds and light rain, which put a damper on any outdoor activity. Also, there was a sense of caution, as there always is on this Holiday... but even more so this year. Most folks I know had their little ones only go to houses where they knew the people. Many had inside parties for the kids. The silver lining in all this is we have all our candy left, and I intend to eat as much as anyone else in the Michaels' house, especially the chocolate :-)

-- (sonofdust@hollow.ween), November 01, 2001.

We haven't had trick or treaters ever since we moved into the woods. Next year, if we have a next year, we're gonna make a spook trail and invite the whole school out to partake.

-- helen (only@days365.to.plan.for.next.year), November 01, 2001.