Halloween: A retrospective

[caddyman]

When I was a kid, Halloween was a date on the calendar and not much else. We certainly didn't celebrate it in any particular way.

By the time I reached 18 and was old enough to hit the pubs of an evening, pecuniary circumstances permitting, Halloween had moved along slightly so that there might be a few fake cobwebs on the pub bar (although in some of the establishments I used to frequent, fake cobwebs were unnecessary), and there might just conceivably be a rubber bat hanging forlornly from a piece of elastic tied to alight fitting.

That then, was Halloween in the UK through the '60s and into the late '70s.

And then came ET, the Extraterrestrial with the pre-junkie Drew Barrymore and the eminently strangle-able Elliott and, it all changed. Shortly thereafter, and with increasing intensity, Halloween took on an American feel and it was no longer safe to venture out after dark on 31st October without running the gauntlet of kids in plastic bin liners and paper hats demanding sweets with menaces. The only thing to do was stay in with the lights out watching telly, or go down the pub.

Nowadays, it seems to depend where you are. In South Cambs, for example, there seems to be an unwritten rule that if there is no pumpkin displayed in the house window, it is off limits and it remains undisturbed. This strikes me as eminently civilised. In South London, of course, it is entirely different.

Up to about 8-8.30 pm the kids and parents roam the streets in the crummy little costumes and have a bit of fun. Fine, I can live with that, provided I don't have to be involved. It's later that the fun starts.

I reckon that there should be a rule that limits participation in Halloween to 10 years old, though with some of the pre-pubescent, burger-fed brutes down our way, maybe 9 years old would be better. Certainly anyone older than that should know better than turning out and effectively roaming the streets in gangs demanding candy with menace. If they were after money, it would be illegal.

All I can say is that if I am 'trick or treated' by a teenager, they can look out for some response such as 'Let me introduce you to a friend of mine who I like to call, Mr Pepper Spray and this his colleague, Mr Mace.

I was toying with the idea of getting a taser, but I'm not sure they're entirely legal, despite the entertainment value.

Dance, Count Dracula, dance.

Comments

[ysharros.livejournal.com]

It's all a cunning Kindred plot to obtain fresh young blood for one night of the year. What, you forgot your fangs?

Come into my parlour, said the spider to the fly. ;)

[keresaspa.livejournal.com]

Here here (or should that be hear hear?!). Halloween has become a stinking nuisance. Over here they come to your door demanding money of all things. We had our day of loyalists and republicans doing that, now it's the bally kids. Plus the fact that I could still hear fireworks at four in the sodding morning was a cruel joke.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

In my area of London, we refer to November as "Pet scaring month" because the fireworks seem to start with Halloween, go on through Bonfire Night and then through to Diwali and probably Eid. And, as you say, to 3 or 4am.

Multicultural anti-social behaviour. Gotta love modern civilisation.

[keresaspa.livejournal.com]

I don't recall anyone having the guts to publicly celebrate Diwali or Eid (?) in a racist hole like Belfast but you can bet the chavs will keep letting them off until near Christmas just for the hell of it.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

Eid (unless I've spelt it horribly wrong) is the festival to celebrate the end of Ramadan (which is a month of fasting; two of my colleagues are Muslim and they can't eat, or drink anything but water, during daylight hours. That's especially harsh when Ramadan happens during the summer.)

I guess in a lot of ways I'm lucky; the area I live in is very mixed, and it's something I really appreciate. However, it does mean that we get chavs of all races, colours and creeds letting off fireworks at 3am.

[keresaspa.livejournal.com]

We're slowly becoming more mixed but it's leading to a lot of narrow-minded bigots dealing out racist attacks. They have little elesxe to do since the ceasefires really.

[nortysarah.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I got a Happy Halloween card... Weird

[ikkleblacktruck.livejournal.com]

In Doncaster they do want money, not sweets, according to my Mum.

[oldnick.livejournal.com]

Last night, as tired out I finished driving back from Cuffley, I suddenly had to brake as the taxi driving ahead of me suddently stopped (on an almost deserted treelined road), the screeched off down a side road.

This may seem normal behaviour for a taxi, but it wasn't what it seemed to be.

It wasn't that the driver had seen a fare, it was that his cab had been hit by an egg thrown from the side of the road by one of a a couple of lurking kids, and he decided to try to run them down, racing off into a side street where (as I passed) I saw a group of about 20, apparently rioting kids, armed with boxes of eggs.

[irdm.livejournal.com]

Did he bag any?

[crazedgiggles.livejournal.com]

Give them a few of those orange peanut-shaped marshmallows and they'll never come back.

[boredinsomniac.livejournal.com]

I went out in costume until I was 13, but most people do here. I went once again for fun (and chocolate, my first and only love) my senior year of high school, but I insisted we go in an unfamiliar neighborhood because I was embarrassed and didn't want anyont to know I had gone trick-or-treating. I would kind of like to go again, although at 23 I suppose I would not be well-received.

I know, I could just buy a few bags of candy and have my fun, but what I liked best about it was the surprise. I loved going through the bag at the end of the night to see what and how much I got. I loved thinking about Halloween every time for the next six months when I opened the fridge and that juice box somebody gave me was still in there.

When I have a kid I'm going to take them out as soon as they can walk, and then count on them forgetting how much they got. I'll give them like a handful or two and keep the rest. That way I will get to relive the candy-related aspects of the evening, which is of course the whole point). although, I will probably be in costume as well, just for the fun of it.