SHORT THOUGHTS WITH JODI K Episode 6~Some things change, some things stay the same.
My daughter is talking about taking the twins to the Mall for Trick or Treating…the Mall???? For real? Well, they are only 1 year old. I’m okay with that this year…but next year, they need to be hitting the pavement like I did as a kid!
My mom would pack us up in a van with several 1st cousins in tow and we would hit up the neighborhood. Old school like cavemen! We walked for miles!!!! We didn’t care if it was cold or raining…or even snowing! We had a mission, and the mission was to get ALL the candy we could! My brother, sister and little cousins ran our little legs off!!! Mom was always there to remind us to say thank you and to “STOP RUNNING!”
We didn’t go to the mall and no one had invented trunk or treating until after my kids grew up.
Do you know how easy that would have been for my mother???
You go to one location and get more candy there than a whole neighborhood.
Before we left to Trick or Treat my mother left a bowl of candy at our house with the note “please take one”. It was so she would have a clear conscience that the neighbor kids got candy from us. I’m pretty sure it was just ONE neighborhood kid! The first one to come across this full bowl of candy and nobody around!
When we got back mom had to “check” our candy to make sure it wasn’t poisoned or the apples didn’t have razor blades in them. Funny how all the black jacks,Mary Jane’s,and black licorice looked unsafe for some reason. (her favorite)
Some parents took their kids candy down to the Flint Police Department and ran it thru the x-ray machine! It is sad that I don’t remember a time when we didn’t have to check our candy after Trick or Treating.
After mom checked our candy we would spread it all out and put them into groups. Pixie Sticks, bubble gum, suckers, Kit Kat’s, Hershey bars, etc. Then the trade would take place!
We would only get 3 pieces of candy to eat before bed . We would dream of ways to sneak candy to school the next day….it never worked, mom was diligent about checking pockets and backpacks.
We always hid our pillowcases filled with candy from our baby sister Robin because she was home all day while we were in school. Learned that the hard way one year.
WHERE WAS MY DAD????? LOL I only have one memory of Halloween with my father and stepmother Ellane. They dressed my brother and I up as dice and my sister Andrea was a card…the queen of hearts I think. Very creative! They didn’t even have the internet to come up with that idea! I don’t remember the amount of candy we got, but I remember smiling a lot and a bunch of walking around with my arms sticking out of holes in a box. I couldn’t have eaten candy before it was checked if I wanted to! I couldn’t get it to my mouth!
When I had children it was so fun to watch them go thru all the same Halloween fun we did as kids. My older kids always went with their dad, it was his holiday. They looked forward to it every year….I did too!!! Kennedy always went trick or treating with her Grandpa & Grandma Green. I swear I think I only took the kids trick or treating maybe once in their lives! My oldest Steven and I went trick or treating when he was older a few times before I had to go to work at the bar I was DJing. My firstborn and I always had the best time walking the neighborhood. He didn’t even like candy! We just liked to see all the costumes. He would throw some scream mask on and I would usually wear a cheerleader costume but no matter how old he was I always saw him as a 4 year old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle! He was so cute!!
Enjoy this time with your kids tonight if you are at the mall, a trunk or treat event, or hitting houses old school. Time is going by so fast!! Get out there and make some memories so your child can write about them in their future blog!
