“Trick or Treat vs Trunk of Treat”
I have no clue as to how many trick-or-treaters to expect this year. At our old house it was easy to prepare. We’d get a big bag of miniature candy bars, and end up not having any kids show up. After living there for 23 years, I’ll bet we averaged less than one kid per year. We wouldn’t have averaged that high, but 10 kids were trucked in on the Halloween of ‘97.
This year will be the first Halloween in our new subdivision. I’m pretty sure our one-year-old neighbor, Oliver, will show up. He may be dressed in Molly’s unicorn outfit. Molly is the family dog. You may have seen the picture in a past article. Cute dog for anyone with blurred vision.
To be honest, you could kill Halloween altogether and I’d be good with it. I believe if you leave trick-or-treating alone, it will die within the next few years. People are just too scared nowadays. I can’t imagine parents allowing their kids to accept candy from just anybody.
It was Ronald Clark O’Bryan who put the skids on “Trick or Treat” for an entire nation. The guy gave his son and daughter and a few of the neighborhood kids some cyanide-laced Pixy Stix for Halloween. Pixy Stix? Straws containing a fruity-flavored sour powder that was not too unlike boxed Jell-O, just not quite as sweet. O’Bryan managed to kill his son, but no one else. The other kids had trouble opening the straws that O’Bryan had stapled shut. He had to help his son open the one he got. Did it for the insurance money. He did the deed in Deer Park in ’74, and was executed in Huntsville in ’84.
Obviously, Trick or Treat did survive the Candy Man, but it’s somewhat more guarded nowadays. Our church is having one of those Trunk or Treats. People decorate their cars and trucks and handout candy to kiddos. Kay and I agreed to participate, but I refused to decorate the car. A man has to draw the line. So, Kay is going to be in charge of one of the inflatable bounce houses. I was supposed to help her, but was called off so I could emcee the Cake Walk.
I’m not a fan of cake walking. I don’t know how they walk cakes today, but back then you’d put out 12 chairs in circle and have 13 people walk around ‘em while music was played. Once the music stops, everyone finds an empty seat. The one chairless person has to leave. Another chair is removed and the music starts again. Over the course of 10 such scenarios you’re going to witness some serious elbowing, tripping and hair pulling. The last person sitting wins a cake.
Yep, it’s the trunk or treat events that will take over for trick or treat. Of course, Halloween itself will never die. It’s got too much history. Our ancestors called it “All Hallows Day” which was the day before “All Saints Day,” which was the day people in Scotland, Ireland and Wales honored those who were proclaimed saints.
On All Hallows Day, children would go from house to house and say prayers for dead kinfolk in exchange for “soul cakes.” The small cakes had a black cross etched on top that represented “a spirit being freed from purgatory.” But the cakes had to be eaten before the spirits were set free. Since this took place in the 11th century, I doubt soul cake would be that much of a draw for today’s kids. – “Hey, where’s the chocolate icing and crème filling?” That’s what I would’ve said..
In the 1800s, kids quit with the prayers, and substituted jokes, poems and songs in return for fruit and money. Enough with the soul cake! Adults started carving faces into turnips to ward off bad spirits. When the Irish came to America they started carving faces on pumpkins, because they couldn’t find enough turnips. It was here in America that the concept of tricking those who refused to offer treats first started. I don’t know who’s to blame for that. I’m thinking the citizens of St. Louis.
If you saw the movie “Meet me in St Louis” you caught a hint of kids tricking, but no one offering them treats. Weirdest Halloween behavior I’ve ever witnessed. Knocking on someone’s door and then hitting them in the face with flour and hollering that you hate them? I’ve watched that scene at least a dozen times. Just as bizarre as it can be. And one of my favorite movies.
Yep, Halloween has become quite the controversy. It carries a lot of baggage. You could kill it next year and it wouldn’t bither me a bot. However, it wouldn’t keep me from having to emcee the Cake Walk. Our church is not calling our event “Halloween.” We’re calling it “Fall Festival.” That name is without controversy… until it develops a history.
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You can contact Mark at hayter.mark@gmail.com. “The Summer of 1976” is still available on e-book at Amazon Books.
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