Happy Halloween!

I wish I were still a kid today. I used to enjoy Halloween so much!

Now, don't get me wrong. As an adult, I still love Halloween, but for different reasons. I love decorating my house with all the orange and black goofiness I can find. I enjoy sending cards to my nephews and niece and my friends. I have a great time handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters that come to my door.

But, when I was a kid, Halloween in my neighborhood was the best.

I grew up in a tract home subdivision of about 120 houses and only one way in and one way out. Only 2 blocks long and one block wide, the streets formed an oval that pretty much resembles a speech balloon in a cartoon. There were more kids in the neighborhood than you can imagine. After all, the subdivision was built in the early sixties and the homes were pretty much bought up by young married couples who were starting families. All of us kids were around the same age.

For me, I had friends in the houses on both sides of ours. On one side were Mabel and Amelia, the other was Pam and Melinda. The five of us grew up together and played together and for many years, trick-or-treated together. When my sister Jamie was born and was old enough, she joined us in our trek around the neighborhood.

Back then, you could go out as a group of 5 young girls without a parent tagging along and be safe. Of course, we had to wait until Mabel and Pam, the older girls in our group, were at least 9 or 10 before they were "in charge" of the rest of us. But we didn't get into any trouble.

And there were the boys from our block who hung out together and did their own version of the group trick-or-treat. And torment us girls, naturally.

For me and Jamie, we never had store-bought costumes or goofy-looking home made ones. Because we both danced, each Halloween, we'd wear one of the costumes from the previous year's dance revues. At the time, we felt stupid, but looking back, we really did have the best costumes because we didn't look like all the other kids.

The 'loot' we'd come home with was awesome, too, because everybody knew everybody. And not only did we get candy, but we got fresh fruit, popcorn balls, toys....

Yeah, I miss the good ol' days.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!