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I went trick-or-treating in my immediate neighbourhood, and when I'd finished, my dad suggested we drive down to Dayton so I could trick-or-treat my grandparents. So we piled into the car, and away we went. I sat in the back seat watching the dark shadowy landscape whiz by, and listened to the droning of my parents talking up front. I was very excited to be going to visit my grandparents, and imagined how fun it would be to trick-or-treat them. Wouldn't grandma be surprised to see me?

When we arrived in Dayton, my dad parked a couple blocks down from my grandparent's house, so they wouldn't see the car and know we were there. I got out, adjusted my mask, and trotted up to my grandparent's front door. I was excited to see my grandmother, and imagined her opening the door and being very happy to see me. I rang the bell and waited. The door opened, and my grandmother stood looking down at me. "Trick-or-Treat!" I said. "Oh, what a pretty costume!" my grandmother replied as she dropped a piece of candy in my orange plastic pumpkin-shaped bucket. "Bye, bye," she said as she closed the door. I stood there for a long moment, suddenly not sure what to do. I expected her to welcome me with open arms, but she didn't. Finally, I turned and went back to the car. My parents thought it was hilarious. I didn't think it was too terribly funny, but I wasn't hurt by it either. Just confused. Dad pulled the car up to the house, and we all got out and went inside. The grown-ups all had a good laugh about grandma not recognizing me, and looking back on it now, I guess it was pretty funny.

After we'd visited for a bit, grandma and mom went to work going through my candy to make sure nothing had been tampered with. I'd gotten an apple from some lady who never gave out candy because she though it was bad for kids, and my grandmother washed it, peeled it, chopped it up and mashed into a rough applesauce. As yummy as that was, I was a bit upset because I always liked eating whole apples (usually while listening to my "Johnny Appleseed" record). I loved the crunching sound and having the juice run down my chin. Years later I learned that some sick bastards would stick razor blades into apples to hurt kids, so my grandmother was just looking out for me. Nowadays most hospitals offer free X-raying of Halloween treats, but when I was a young trick-or-treater, it was up to the parents to protect their kids from whatever hazards might be lurking in their orange plastic pumpkin bucket.

The next memorable Halloween I had, I was nine years old, and we lived in Cle Elum, Washington. Although it had been cold on Halloween when we lived in Pasco, it had never snowed. In Cle Elum, however, it did. That year, I wanted to go as a ballerina, which would be easy since I took ballet classes, and had several costumes from our various recitals to choose from. I decided to wear my purple sequined tutu with the purple tights, my little purple sequined tiara, and my little ballet slippers. Heck, I might even dance for some people! But, because it snowed, my pretty purple ballerina costume was smashed under a heavy winter coat complete with a fuzzy lined hood, jeans and snowmobile boots. I was vividly upset by this! No one would be able to tell that I was a pretty ballerina in a purple tutu if I was all bundled up! Being the good, responsible parents they were, however, my mom and dad stood their ground, and so out into the snowy Halloween night went a pretty purple ballerina disguised as an Eskimo.

That year I went trick-or-treating with some of the kids from my neighbourhood. The boys had figured out early on that we'd be able to get more candy if we used pillow cases instead of the little plastic pumpkins. It was a great idea, and we all came well prepared with the largest pillowcases our moms would let us use. We trekked through our hilltop neighbourhood first, then headed down to cover the rest of the little town. We hit all the neighbourhoods at the foot of the hill, then walked down towards the Elementary school to get the few residences there. It had been snowing the entire evening, and we were soaked from head to toe and freezing! There was already two or three feet of snow on the ground from a previous storm, and our heavy, candy laden pillowcases dragged through the slush and snowdrifts as we trudged from house to house. When we'd trick-or-treated about all we could stand, we headed back up the hill to our homes, dragging our soaking wet half-full pillow cases behind us. I walked through the front door cold, wet and exhausted, but with a ton of candy!! I was thrilled! I figured I would be eating Halloween candy until the next Halloween! Right on, man! Using the pillow cases had been a brilliant idea! When my bounty was dumped out on the kitchen table for examination, however, it was discovered that all the candy - all of it - was completely wet and ultimately ruined. I was allowed to keep none of it. And, then I caught a cold, and was sick for like a week or something, but it was still a super fun Halloween! I have trick-or-treaters come to my house now and thrust a pillow case at me, and it just cracks me up! It's pretty cool to see that the tradition lives on!

I have very few Halloween memories - those two stories from my childhood are pretty much it. I know I helped carve jack-o-lanterns, went to Halloween parties at school, and one year I dressed up as a witch, and another year I was a hobo, but I remember nothing else about any other childhood Halloweens. In High School my friends and I had a Halloween party in the basement of Daffy's house. We dressed up and had party foods, and beverages, and tons of fun. During college, I went to a couple lame parties, and attended the midnight showing of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." When I worked retail, we often dressed up on Halloween, and had trick-or-treaters come though. The past few years I've become the designated candy hander-outer at home. It's not such a bad job, really. I rent a couple scary movies, drink some Vampire wine and hand out cheap candy (Sweet Tarts, Smarties, and DumDums) to costumed kids. It's only a few hours out of an evening, and really, it's kind of fun. All the kids dressed up as their favourite creature or character, ringing the bell, and shouting, "Trick-or-Treat!" really takes me back. Especially if they've got pillow cases!