Sunday, October 01, 2006

Halloween: Now and then

I did say there would be a few non-music posts this month and here is one. I was born in 1970 so it would have been the mid to late 70's when I was enjoying Halloween as a kid. As I parent now, I decided to compare aspects of Halloween from thirty years ago to Halloween today. I will just concentrate on a few parts of the holiday.

Halloween shows/movies
Then-In the 70's seeing It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown came on once and you made sure you had your snack and were in front of the TV to see it.

Now-We have it on DVD and we can watch it whenever we want. However it may not be the event it was back then.

Costumes
Then-You had to wear a plastic mask that was held on with a rubber band that was stapled to the mask. The mask had one little one around the mouth to breath through. The costumes were hot and didn't always look like the character.

Now-Costumes look cool and are way lighter, more comfortable and usually easier to put on. Also facepaint is easy put on and can be bought at almost any department store.

Candy
Then-You had a good selection and I always looked forward to Halloween being the only time you could get candy corn.

Now-Having a lot to choose from can be good, but it's almost overwhelming with Wal-mart having an entire two sided aisle dedicated just to Halloween candy. The plus is that there does seem to be more chocolate candy now.

Decorations
Then
Lots of one dimensional paper hang-up things. Some looked good, some looked goofy.

Now
There is far more to choose from, but I think you have both ends of the spectrum. There are some cool things like lights and such and many things are cheaper. However there are plenty of tacky Halloween decorations as well. For example I saw a light-up baseball jack o lantern at the store yesterday.

So there are differences, but there was good to Halloween then and now.

4 Comments:

Blogger Jeff said...

Halloween is such a great day. It's a shame I will never be able to relive those trick-or-treating moments first hand again.

10:30 PM  
Blogger Will said...

I can't speak with any authority about Haloween because we don't really celebrate it in the UK.

4:22 AM  
Blogger On My Watch said...

I learned one adult version of trick or treating when I was in the military...called trick-or-drinking, and I have participated in that one; it's great. That's if you know everyone on your block or whatever. You should start the tradition. :)

When I was young we pretty much made our costumes at home, but one time I got a "real" one. woohoo.

Where I'm from the people bring their kids around on a hay ride which is great unless you're the one who answers the door and there's 50 kids standing out there. But at least you only have to answer the door once.

I know what you mean about holiday tv specials being an event. I'm not sure how you could recreate that experience for your kids.

4:55 AM  
Blogger Jenn said...

Mostly Halloween is better now....except NOW I'm the adult and not the kid....and that kinda sucks.

It was safer back then though....

10:16 AM  

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