All Saint’s Day…or…the fay after
Hallowe’en, if that’s your preference. Hallowe’en used to be a blast for me. I
loved standing at the door, talking to kids, getting quips from them, and then
doling out treats. The most fun I ever had on Hallowe’en was at my daughter’s home
in Ottawa. She had to go out for a bit, and I got to tend the door. A horde of
Ottawa U students came by, on the way home from the PM’s House and Rideau Hall,
where the Governor General lives. Good taking’s I hear…
The kids were all in wild and homemade
costumes, filled with merriment and ready to interact with someone. I scared
them a bit at the door, I was dressed as a pirate…in rags… and had a 2-inch
kitchen carving knife clamped in my teeth! They overcame their initial shock,
and we had some lively conversation. Everyone was eager to tell me who they
were, in costume, and where they came from. It was clear that many of them were
homesick and were trying to recapture their recent childhood. I asked if anyone
was from Alberta, and when one young lady put up her hand, jumping up and down,
I found that she was – miraculously- from the town where I live. She was
ecstatic to find a ‘home-boy’ in Ottawa. I mention this event, less than a
decade old, because the event has changed so radically for me. We no longer
greet kids at the door. In fact, we are “not at home” on Hallowe’en, or at least
not visibly at home. You may wonder
what has brought about this dramatic change. I’ll tell you.
We live in a small town in central
Alberta…Bible belt country. Our community is about 7000, with other small towns
nearby, a city of 12000 a half hour north if us, and another a half hour south
of us. Many of our residents are retired, some are in business, and a fair percentage
of the men work in what is called in Alberta “the oil patch.” This means they
drive big pickup trucks, travel many kilometers to work every day, and bring
home large paychecks. The fact that
the bulk if these paychecks are tied up in payments for accouterments of what
some call “the life”, consisting of ATV’s, Snowmobiles, a large Fifth Wheel
(mobile vacation home) and at least one personally owned truck. These are
usually heavy duty, crew cabbed, and extra-large tires vehicles. Our long block
alone boasts 30 of these monsters!
The relation of all this to Hallowe’en is
that many folks from out of town assume the community is wealthy. Our neighbourhood, for example, looks like a
suburban neighbourhood in any city. A few years ago, we noticed, on Hallowe’en,
that our street was choked with vehicles from elsewhere. A horde of children
poured from each vehicle. Wave after wave of children came to our door. Few of
them were in costume, and fewer of them spoke. They simply stuck out their
pillowcases, and once they had candy, they turned and left. This went on for a
couple or three hours! Slowly, we realized that none of these children were
neighbourhood kids, or even local kids. This was an invasion, a candy grab!
After a couple of years of this, I became quite annoyed and disappointed by
this. No amount of interaction could pry a comment from the kids. It was ‘grab
and run’ time. We became quite disillusioned with the whole business, and now I
refuse to have anything to do with it. Other years, we had stayed in our
basement and watched TV, listening to the doorbell ring. This year, we ran
errands in a nearby city, came home and parked in the ally, entering the house
form the rear. No lights went on, and we did our business and then went to a
movie. Driving toward our street, we noticed that the parking lot beside the
soccer fields at the end of our block was filled with cars, 20 or 30 of them.
In the dark, at night. Our street was a continual parade of vehicles circling
the block, disgorging kids and moving them on to the next few houses. The
sidewalks an road were crowded with children. We learned from a neighbour that
she had spent $85 on candy, and it was all gone by 8:00 PM.
I would love to host neighbourhood children
on Hallowe’en, but I am unprepared to support an invasion of greed and apparent
entitlement. Apart from the inappropriateness if stuffing kids with sugar, I do
not wish to participate in such a soulless candy raid. There did seem to be more
kids with costumes on the street, but the hordes underline my main point. I
question the values of a family that voluntarily transport their kids all over
town, or even to the next town, just to get more loot.
I miss Hallowe’en the way I have experienced
it. Perhaps I am simply an old curmudgeon, but $80 + is not in my budget for
kids who come by in an SUV to get their loot!
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