Halloween

    Today is Halloween.  As you can see in the photo of one of McBride’s houses, in North America it has become an important commercial event with pumped up sales of costumes, candy, and yard decorations.  Halloween is the night when kids dress up in costumes, go house to house, and collect candy for their efforts.  As a child, it was great fun, as an old guy, not so much.

    We used to have young want-to-be monsters, princesses, and super-heroes come to our house to trick or treat, but for about 15 years, no one has shown up to scare us at our doorstep.  Of course, that has never stopped us from buying a big bag of candy, just in case.  Unfortunately, we end up having to eat it ourselves.  

    Instead, of coming to our house, all of the kids now go to the subdivision in McBride.  The houses are closer together, which means less footsteps and more candy.  It is not unusual for residents of the subdivision to cater to 200 kids.  McBride usually has a firework display during the night, that is also an attraction.

    Halloween Trivia:  For some unknown reason in British Columbia (and no other provinces) fireworks are shot off at Halloween.  

    When the kids get to a house they say, “Trick or Treat.”  That means that if they are not given some kind of treat, they will return to perpetrate some kind of trick on the resident.  Of course the householders always opt for giving out the treat.  Fortunately the whole “Trick” threat has largely gone by the wayside.

    When we first moved to McBride, we always heard stories of eggs being thrown at houses, and windows being “soaped.”   Halloween was an excuse for vandalism.  Our neighbor, who was a high school teacher, was always on guard for his house on Halloween.  I know that in town, the groceries refused to sell eggs to teens, for several days before Halloween.  

    Like I said, the trick part of Halloween has fortunately vanished and has been replaced by gluttony.

View my paintings at davidmarchant.ca