Thread: Childhood Memories of Hallowe'en

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I'm feeling nostalgic today, so I made a thread for us to share our childhood memories of Hallowe'en. I think that for most of us, the love of Hallowe'en started when we were kids (I know that's true for me). So what are the magical moments you remember?

I remember that we used to be really naughty when it came to trick or treat. We'd all swap masks so we could hit the same street more than once!! This was a problem if the person whose door you knocked on knew your mum...hahaha!!

We used to get TONS of sweets. I don't know whether people are just more grumpy now (I know from the TOTs I've talked to in recent years, a lot of houses don't even bother to open the door) or whether it's because the community I grew up in was very friendly and close-knit - but everyone used to open the door to you because they knew your family. That's how it was - everyone knew everyone. So you'd come home with a sackful of goodies...muhaha!

I also remember (does anyone else remember this?) being a Bin Bag Witch for years and years! My mum would just cut arm holes and a head hole in a black bin bag and voila!! (I suspect the mums hit on this idea as the cheapest way to make a costume!) My mum also always dyed my hair with green food colouring to make it 'Halloweeny'. I remember you had to be careful about the food colouring because if you played bobbing for apples too enthusiastically it would all come out into the water!

We also used to do apples on strings. And when I was a kid, everyone had turnip lanterns. That was before pumpkins became widely available.

And I remember every year I used to help my mum make chocolate-dipped apples with 'faces' on them (mostly we used Smarties to give them eyes, mouth and nose, and sugar strands for 'hair'!)

I still make chocolate apples every Hallowe'en. For me, it wouldn't be Hallowe'en without them.

So what are your cherished childhood memories?

Great thread idea! I have so many great memories of Halloween, but one year stands out more than the others. My mom let me have a Halloween party, it was 1985, I was 9 years old. I was a "punk rocker" which meant I was wearing one of my dad's work shirts, belted at the waist, several flourescent pairs of socks, my hair teased up with a huge bow in it and crazy makeup including a lightening bolt on my cheek. Nice.

We did all the classic Halloween party things, actually bobbed for apples. My mom was the "Fortune Teller" and read out hilarious fortunes for me and my friends. One of them I remember was that she told a boy in my class that he was going to become a millionaire when he grew up because he was going to invent fartless beans.

Our house didn't have a garage, it had a carport between the house and the storage shed, and my mom covered it in streamers, we had tons of candy and food and music, it was awesome.

Sadly, as an adult I think what I miss most about those days is that I always felt safe. It was before I knew not to trust people, before my parents divorced and the world became a much scarier place, and not in a good, spooky Halloween way. I visited that neighborhood again not too long ago and actually teared up a little because I wanted to move back so that my sons could have all the great memories there that I did.

Snow. I remember trying to trick-or-treat with giant snowbanks on each side of the road. Taller than I was.

We used to have a "Fun Frolic" which was basically an indoor Trunk-Or-Treat/School Carnival (catholic grade school...yay!) I think I pronounced it Frun Frolic until I was about 11. It actually wasn't too bad and I have some fond memories of that--TONS OF CANDY. While the catholic high school was still open (last graduating class was when I was in 1st grade) the high school kids would do a haunted maze out of cardboard boxes and black plastic sheets in one of the classrooms, as a little guy, that was pretty exciting for me. They even did the old "put your hand in here" gags.

No classic "Childhood Memories" that stand out, but when I was 16, a few of us from the Judo Club inflated a bunch of dark purple balloons with Acetylene, and loaded them into big black trash bags. Around 8:00 on Hallowe'en Night we were in a cabbage field about 100' from a well-tavelled road. I grew up on a farm, the cabbage was around 18" high. We used lighters to make the balloons explode. BOOM, and a flash of blue flame, really cool, the weather couldn't have been more perfect, it was foggy. Within five minutes we had a big group of cars,TOT's and parents standing out on the road watching. They couldn't see us, but we could hear them. I heard one father say something about "Methane Gas." Oh, it was hilarious. We were in two pairs, about 30' apart, and I could hear the ther guys stifling their laughter. Finally, as we were running out of balloons, a big blue Ford Pick-up pulled into the field - my Dad!

The season usually kicked off 2 weeks early with our annual apple picking and haunted house visit.

My TOTing days took place in the 70's. Those store bought costumes were popular back then. The ones that came with a nylon outfit with a plastic mask. We lived on a dark dead end road with only 9 houses on one side and woods on the other. Creepy street for Halloween but only problem was, no one would TOT down it except those who lived on it. My dad always took us out TOTing and we would cover the two streets over from ours. Since the same people lived in our neighborhood for years and years... we knew which houses were the really fun ones and which (usually the elderly) would just keep their lights off. It was common for neighborhood friends to give out caramel apples.

Two costumes that really stick in the memory bank was a costume my mum made for a Halloween party at my elementary school. She made them out of simple paper bags but my sis and I were toy soldiers. We actually one first place in the costume party. Another year I took an old sheet and some props from my dads band and I was a 'western ghost". LOL

Love this thread!

Halloween meant Ben Cooper costumes (Darth Vader was my favorite), making my own costumes with the Remco Frank and Drac make up kit, TOTing for hours, the decorated haunted house around the corner where all the TOT kids wanted to go, the anticipation build up, monster movies on TV, watching Count Gore's Halloween Special show "Dracula" while eating TOT candy in my Darth vader costume.

Happy Halloween!

I went to a public elementary school and we always had a halloween carnival. Everyone dressed up and we went from station to station.. playing games and winning little prizes. My 5th grade class actually made a haunted maze out of cardboard boxes. People would pay to crawl through the boxes where my classmates and I would squirt them with squirt guns, grab them through holes or stick our ugly masked faces through a crack and scare them! At that time, most houses handed out candy and even though my mom had to "inspect" the candy before we could eat it, we never had a problem. It was a time of my dad telling us scary stories that always ended with all of us screaming.. and gathering around the TV to watch the The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. lol Great times......

I have always loved Halloween. One of my favorite memories is Halloween 1970. That year during the day I went to my first Halloween party with my sister. After we got home it was time to go TOT. My mom and one of her friends took us to the neighborhood where the rich people lived. They said they gave out money(not true). We finished up in our own area. It seemed like we were out all night when it was a couple hours at most. After we got home "Creature Features" was just starting. So I sat down with my candy and watched "Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman". To this day it is one of my favorite Universal Monster movies because of that Halloween. It is still magic to me.

I remember going out trick or treating one year, and later on in the night, I somehow ended up with a group of kids, I didn't know any of them, but they welcomed me in their group, and the girl in charge, made sure we all stayed together.

I remember halloween parties at my elementary school. They closed the gym for a whole week before the party and turned it into a giant walk through haunted house. The teachers dressed up as the monsters. I distinctly remember my principal as a vampire, and my gym teacher at a meat counter swinging a cut off arm at me. There was a graveyard with a werewolf, a dot maze, and a guy that broke through a brick wall with his upper body (using foam bricks they had to replace for every scare). The rest of the classrooms had games, a cake walk, and crafts, and most importantly CANDY!

As I got older they held halloween parties at the high school. Also one year the local cable provider (remember those? Before cable became a monopoly?) was interviewing kids at the local studio and showing them in costume on public access. I think i was Freddy Krueger.

I also remember TOT as an event held in the dark, with almost all of the people on the street participating, and lots of kids everywhere. It's just not the same anymore. Even though i live in a different neighborhood people drive their kids because almost no one hands out candy. Plus TOT is during daylight hours on a Saturday instead of Halloween. There are definitely fewer kids participating where I live. I feel like kids are getting ripped off of the awesome memories i had, but who am I to turn move back Daylight Savings time lol.