It was a dark and stormy night...

I'm linking up over at Mocha with Linda for today's Flashback Friday. The theme is Halloween memories...

Halloween was celebrated in our house when I was growing up but we didn't go overboard. We had parties and parades at school but it was really all about the candy for my sister and I. We did have a jack o lantern and I guess we helped with the creating but I sort of remember my dad doing that and us just watching. We probably helped scoop out the seeds but he enjoyed making a scary face and putting a lot of detail into the actual carving. My mom would attempt to get us to eat something nutritious for an early dinner and then we grabbed our big pillowcases and were off.

We usually bought a costume or came up with something from our dress up box which was extensive. I grew up in NJ and the weather was always a challenge. You had to consider that you might need a parka over your outfit or at the very least a rain jacket. One memory in the costume department really stands out...I think I was nine the year I dressed in a Japanese costume which I'm sure is very non-PC now but honestly it was a beautiful gold kimono with a sort of geisha type mask over my face. When I was a kid a costume was not complete unless it had one of those horrible plastic masks that covered your face and was held together with a piece of elastic that wrapped around your head so tightly that your hair hurt all the way down to the roots by nights end. The mask made your face sweat and sat so close to your skin it was hard to breathe and then had tiny slits for eye holes so you could barely see where you were walking. Safety back in 1970 wasn't quite what it is today folks.

Anyway, I had some shoes that were a velvety flip flop style on top with wooden soles that clip clopped when you walked. My dad brought them back from Japan so I was feeling very authentic. The problem was the kimono wrapped very tightly around my legs which meant I had to take very small steps when I walked. My sister was a year younger than me and my brother was five years older so he was the lucky one assigned trick or treat duty. He had a friend who lived on the next street over and we used to avoid walking in front of this particular house on regular days because the family had a great big German Shepherd that barked like there was no tomorrow. But my brother knew the boy so naturally he had us stop there for trick or treating. And do you know, as we were stepping down off of the porch that big giant German Shepherd came barreling out of the house right at me and I tried to run in my very tight around the ankle kimono while wearing wooden soled velvet flip flop style shoes and I did a face plant on the sidewalk. I also developed a fear of German Shepherds that stayed with me for a long long time. Until I was 26 years old in fact and we adopted a mutt that had been abandoned in our neighborhood. A mutt that looked suspiciously like a German Shepherd. I learned to love a German Shepherd.

With my own children the hubs was in charge of trick or treat duty and I stayed home and doled out the loot. When my girls were toddlers we lived in North Jersey. Our neighborhood was really dark and hilly so hubs got quite the workout pushing a double stroller up and down the mountain that was our street. We moved to Maryland during their elementary school years and lived in a neighborhood with cul de sacs and lots of kids. Halloween was a very social thing and the dads used to take the kids around in a big group and again, for my kids, it was all about the candy. There were parties and parades at their school and we carved pumpkins (usually outside with Dad in charge because that's best). And of course part of the Halloween fun was dumping all the candy out afterwards for inspection and to make trades and so hubs and I could see what we might want to eat once they'd gone to bed for the night. Sorry girls!

Last year I wrote a post detailing a very funny incident that occurred around Halloween one year. It involved daughter2 because she and crazy mishap know each other well. You can read that post here if you're so inclined.

In Linda's prompt she did ask two very important questions-

"Do you like candy corn?"

and "What is your favorite Halloween candy?"

I like candy corn as long as I don't overindulge. However I am lacking in self discipline so if a bowl filled with candy corn is sitting in front of me I generally end up eating a few too many. My new favorite way to eat candy corn is to mix it with a jar of peanuts. Tastes just like a Payday which, as it happens, is my favorite candy bar.

Have a safe and happy Halloween weekend everyone!