Looking for a Picnic Table

Halloween. It’s a great holiday. Especially if you’re a kid.

I love this holiday because the kids love this holiday. In their book, it’s right up there with Christmas. The little ones, especially, are always so excited to ring your doorbell and inevitably, they ring it two or three times “just to make sure."

But, like the last couple of holidays, I was kind of sad this Halloween. I didn’t see any dryer lint or bunch of grapes made out of purple balloons. Nobody came to the door with a bunch of socks pinned to their sweatshirt…..static electricity. A picnic table did not show up on my doorstep.

There has always been an element of favorite cartoon and pop character costumes to every Halloween, but you always had a few kids that didn’t fit in the box. I always looked forward to these kids. They were the trailblazers. They had a costume that no one else had thought of and weren’t afraid to walk around the neighborhood being different. 

These were kids that had imagination. 

They spent a lot of time and even more energy, creating something that made them stand out. That’s why it was so notable. I never knew too many kids that wanted to be different, did you? Seeing those costumes, to me, meant imagination was alive and well and there were kids out there that had no problem being who they wanted to be, even on Halloween. It was one of the few ways those of us that did not have a pulse on the education system (outside of our own children’s progress) could see creativity at work.

In recent years, temporary Halloween stores have supplied the usual stock of costumes that are walking the street. Like all of you, I’ve seen my fair share of Cell Psycho costumes and Faceless Phantoms. It’s still a fun, candy filled holiday for the kids. I mean who can beat free candy! But for those of us who are on the assembly line of filling Halloween bags, the holiday has lost a bit of the luster. 

I wonder if this beloved holiday, like all of them, has suffered from the ill effects of the dormant economy. In most families, one or more parents have lost a job or started a new one. Mom and Dad don’t have time to sit down and help plan, let alone make, an original costume. Resources are few and far between, and have been directed to what is really needed in the family. If Mom is working, she’s for sure at work until five or later. Running the kids to the Halloween store fits into the time crunch schedule that she is under. I surely understand all of this. I just miss the homemade stuff.

For those of us old folks that are passing out the free stuff, something is missing. I miss seeing those kids who dare to be different. The ones that wanted to win the school costume parade and you could tell spent hours planning and creating a costume. Do they still have parades?  I don’t even know.

Maybe I’m just getting old (which I am) and I am living on the fumes of holidays past. After all, my kids are grown adults. I have been removed from the planning stage of this holiday for a while. But I really long for the Halloween when I come to the door and I see a loaf of bread made out of plastic bags and spongy packing material.   Maybe an Ipod made from a cardboard box, complete with a touch screen (yeah, right!) is more appealing for this generation. 

At any rate, I will keep buying the candy and opening my door. Halloween is the best free candy day of every kid’s childhood and far be it from me to be judge and jury here. That wasn’t the purpose of this blog. 

I’m just hopeful that maybe this down cycle we are all going through, will bring the light at the end of the tunnel and creativity will once again shine through.

Now that would be a great costume! A flashlight that actually lights up! The kid that creates that costume can have my whole stash of candy!

Happy Halloween!