Sally in The MIX

Monday, October 31, 2016

Halloween – A Fun Day

Halloween is a fun day. I loved it when my kids were little, and I love it now. I love Halloween now because it’s the day before CANDY GOES ON HALF PRICE!

Yes, I have been known to go door-to-door at all the groceries in Sallisaw searching for half-price candy on Nov. 1. I confess, I also do the same on the day after Easter. I still have Easter candy in the fridge.

But I didn’t love it when I was a kid. My one memory of Halloween was the one, when I was in elementary school, when Mom decided to dress me up as a gypsy. I was to wear a pair of her fancy earrings. Back then the earrings were not for pierced ears. They all had screw-on backs. So you can guess it was many years ago. Mom was trying to put those earrings on me, when the screw back got off kilter with the screw threads. Mom fiddled and fiddled and fiddled with those earrings, trying to get them to line up correctly. But it didn’t happen. Instead those earrings got tighter, and tighter, and tighter.

I remember screaming. It’s a wonder I didn’t end up with pierced ears. Don’t remember the rest of that Halloween. Maybe I was too traumatized to even go trick-or-treating.

And to this day I will not wear earrings.

But I loved dressing up my kids and grandkids for Halloween. Usually my kids had to wear an old sheet with holes for eyes and a mouth. We didn’t have a lot of money back then, but we had a lot of old sheets.

As a grandma, dressing up Granddaughter Jessie was a delight. Her handmade Tinker Belle costume was the best ever! But I had to re-make the M&M costume when son noticed I had ironed the M on backwards. Oops. Nothing like having to start from scratch on the very day the costume is due!

All families are full of such stories. So I went looking for more.

-The real monsters are the people that give away little boxes of raisins instead of Halloween candy.

ME: How true! We had one old lady in our neighborhood who went out to her apple tree and just gave the kids an apple on Halloween. One year my enterprising sons and friends crept into the old lady’s backyard early on Halloween day and stole all the apples, hoping for better treats. All they got was caught, and in trouble.

-Want to hear blood-curdling screams. Tell your wife she has a spider on her shoulder.

ME: Yep. That would be me. Saw a spider on my bed blanket last week. By 6 a.m. I had washed all the blankets but was still bug spraying the bedroom.

-The only thing really scary about Halloween is running out of candy.

ME: I actually know people (and you know who you are), who ate up all the Halloween candy, then, on Halloween night, they had to turn off all the lights and hide in a closet because they had nothing to give the trick-or-treaters, not even apples and raisins.

-Aren't we clever, making the kids go door to door collecting candy for us?

ME: Well, in defense of all parents, we have to check the candy the best way we can. We eat it!

All right. Trick-or-treaters, and parents, can avoid Halloween mistakes from too-tight earrings to candy theft (mostly) by visiting the Halloween on Elm Street, sponsored by the Sallisaw Police Department on Monday. The show opens at 5:30 p.m. and includes games and bounce houses as well as candy. That way the kids can burn off all (mostly) that sugar before bed. KXMX will be there, and looking forward to seeing all those costumed kids.

Have a safe and fun Halloween.


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