In my journalistic past, I’ve been known to pull the rug out from under Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny — so why shouldn’t I do something of the same to prevent the mayhem caused by unruly small fry on this occasion, Halloween and the Great Pumpkin? You have to admit it. Halloween has careened out of control.
These days the costumes and the candy and all the bothersome gimmicks have inundated what used to be a simple event. On the other hand, because of religious and even political agitation, many kids can’t even have a carefree party at school with dressups and scary masks and way-too-rich Halloween candy.
But that doesn’t mean I like everything about present-day celebrations of Halloween. This evening, my spouse and I will take turns opening the door and pretending to be surprised and even frightened by the appearance of little gremlins wearing scary costumes and lugging large sacks or bags as they wait for a sugary handout.
And we’ll give each child shouting “Trick or Treat” some candy. However, we don’t like the “gimme something or else” attitude Halloween nurtures in kids. We ought to channel their fun into block or community parties, abolish the trick-or-treat idea, and quit turning the kids into ragged beggars. Most of all, we should bring back the reminder that this should be a religious day, not one that turns kids into beggars.
I have to confess that, under no circumstances, should Halloween be turned into the violent trickery that kids and their elders practiced in some neighborhoods like mine when I was a youngster many years ago in the community called Little Italy on the East Side of Cleveland, Ohio.
On one occasion I can never forget because it turned out to be so vicious and unnecessary, the kids in my neighborhood, joined by two or three adults who should have known better, conceived of the idea of removing the front stairs of about 6 steps from the front of the house of a man who had warned the kids that he would confiscate any baseballs or soccer balls that landed in his front yard and damaged his flowers.
As a result, he was something of a “marked man” for the more unruly youngsters in the neighborhood. But he didn’t deserve what happened. As night came on and the lights went low in the community, the Halloween gang decided to play a joke on the old fellow, so they removed the front stairs and carried them away and out of sight.
I must add this note before I go on. I wasn’t one of that gang that Halloween night because I didn’t approve of their tactics. In addition, if I dared do what those kids did that night, my parents would have grounded me for some time and taken away many of my privileges. At any rate, it was a dark night on which the moon was blocked by many clouds. When the kids started beating on drums or whatever they held in their hands at about 10 o’clock in the evening, many people came out of their homes to see who was making all the racket. One who did was the elderly fellow, whose stairs were missing.
He ran out of his front door as if getting ready to chase the noise makers and, not realizing his front stairs were missing, he tumbled head first onto the walk below and was injured seriously, necessitating a quick trip to the hospital nearby. When the parents in the neighborhood discovered what had happened, the Halloween mayhem ended abruptly and the noisemakers were promptly punished. There were other similar incidents in that neighborhood in previous years — but never again. Happy Halloween?