So Halloween falls on a Sunday this year. I don’t think the goodness of church cancels out the “evil” of the spooks and specters or vice versa, but it does throw a wrench into the trick-or-treating. Folks go away for the weekend or, if they are home, the guys want to watch football and munch on chips and beer, not malted milk balls.
Halloween is not what it used to be. The television networks put on hours of good classic scare flicks, the good costumes came out of cardboard and cellophane windowed boxes, the treats came in really eatable sizes and nobody had to worry about where they were canvassing for treats because folks were trustworthy.
Now the networks run Jason or Michael Myers on consecutive nights (because heaven knows there are enough of those sequels to last a week), costumes are pinioned to hangars, treats are “fun size” as in two seconds of fun and a lifetime of obesity, and some neighborhoods just aren’t child friendly anymore.
Maybe it’s time to relegate the trick-or-treat part to the schools or community centers where the activities can be monitored while everybody still has fun. No matter when sundown begins in the fall, it gets dark fast and kids in unfamiliar garb have trouble navigating strange sidewalks and front lawns inundated with expensive gargoyles and miles of fake spider webbing.
Halloween should be a safe and social event. Even on Sundays.
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