Down the Rabbit Hole

Halloween in New England

30 Day Blogging Challenge
PROMPT November 1st
I’m sending this prompt in between princesses and spidermen begging at my door for free candy. If you celebrate Halloween in your part of the world, what are your family’s traditions? What were the popular Halloween costumes in your childhood? Which candy was the most coveted?

We celebrated Halloween last night with unseasonably balmy temps for the typical October here New England. A spooky wind turned the roadways into a skittering carpet of dead leaves and the sky was black above the glow of the street lamps. The jack-o-lanterns leered and blinked from decorated porches and the night was filled with the sounds of small groups of trick-or-treaters making their way up and down driveways. It was an ideal night for the festivities, one that made me wax nostalgia for the Halloween's of my youth. This year I found it more difficult to recognize some of the costumes. My 9-year old seemed to have no problem and schooled me on who was who. Inflatable costumes seemed to be very popular this year and, apparently, masked killers are still all the rage. One group of middle schoolers traveling in tight pack included, to my delight, a pretty effective Pennywise and Georgie - outfitted with a bright yellow slicker and a bouncing red helium balloon. Kudos to those kids...they were Halloween-ing it up proper-like!

Overall my daughter's haul included the standard lot of M&M and skittles packets, mini snickers and milky ways and a few tootsie rolls and dum dums. She loves the smarties and sweet tarts and saves me the few reese's peanut butter cups and peppermint patties she managed to snag. Some healthy-minded parent was also handing out sea salted veggie chips shaped like ghosts and bats, so I supposed they should get points for that. Thankfully there were no apples or popcorn balls this year, or even worse..milk duds and malt balls...two types of candy that seem designed for purely evil purposes and and are not at all suitable for consumption.