I was thinking about Halloween, and how much fun it was to go trick or treating when I was a kid. Back then the neighbors handed out the big full-size candy bars (no such thing as mini bars when I was a kid). I think I always had a costume we put together ourselves (recalling hobo and witch as frequent choices). Back then, either our parents were naive or there wasn't as many crazy people around in the early 60's, as there are now because we went out by ourselves trick or treating, returning when our bags were full to our satisfaction. Even when my children were little, early and mid 80's, it seemed pretty safe where were lived. We did not worry too much, but also the school had started having a Halloween party which was fun for the kids. My two kids had a few homemade costumes, but they had plenty of the store bought plastic ones as well, since I wasn't too creative. How did my daughter become so talented? LOL
Last year we did not have ANY trick or treaters, but this year we bought a few bags of our favorite mini-bars just in case :) How about you? What is Halloween like where you live, do your kids still go trick or treating?
Bye Bye October!
How was your month for books. Mine was better than September, but only because, I squeezed in (7) childrens books, which I really enjoyed. I plan to read a few of these each month as I really liked doing so.
I was really happy with the quality of my reads this month. Here's the list:
- Interrupting Chicken; David Ezra Stein - 5/5
- House at Riverton; Kate Morton - 4/5
- The Healer; Carol Cassella - 4/5
- Santa Fe Edge; Stuart Woods - 2/5 (audio)
- Moonlight Mile; Dennis LeHane - 3.5/5
- Llama, Llama Misses Mama; Anna Dewdney - 5/5
- The Halloween Kid; Rhode Motijo - 3.5/5
- Comet's Nine Lives
; Jan Brett - 5/5
- Blue Nude; Elizabeth Rosner - 5/5
- Molly's Pilgrim; Barbara Cohen - 5/5
- Zoo Story; Thomas French - 4 /5
- The Poisonwood Bible; Barbara Kingsolver - 4.5/5 (audio and print)
- Monsters Eat Whiny Children; Bruce Eric Kaplan
- Freedom; Jonathan Franzen - 4/5 (audio)
- Fancy Nancy: Halloween...or Bust; Jane O'Connor and Glasser - 4.5/5
My favorite adult level reads were: Blue Nude and The Poisonwood Bible, and Favorite childrens books were Llama, Llama Misses Mama, Interrupting Chicken and Molly's Pilgrim.
Reading Challenge Progress
How are you doing with the reading challenges you signed up for?
I completed the RIP V challenge that Carl hosted by reading (4) books, and with (2) months left in 2010, I've completed (9) challenges..(see my left side bar), and have (2) challenges left to complete. One is the Gothic Novel Challenge , and I only need to read (1) more for this one. However, I'm pretty sure I will fail miserably at my own challenge (covering face in embarrassment) ......Books To Read Before I Die. You see, I'm not ready to kick the bucket, so that's why I haven't worked very hard on this challenge :) I've read 8/20 and I'm working on #9 right now.
Wishing you a special day where ever you are.
we must be about the same age. I have fond memories of Halloween too! I trick or treated in the 60s as well and yes we went by ourselves and at NIGHT. Do kids still trick or treat in the day instead of night?
ReplyDeleteWe have no children and we live in a condo complex where the children don't trick or treat here.
I remember the large candy bars too (but I do remember a few small ones coming into the mix)
I remember my parents rule was to not enter anyone's house. I remember one house where I heard they were giving out glazed donuts but you had to go in to get them. What a quandary that was! Do I enter to get my most favorite thing in the world and risk harm? My parent's words rang in my head....we didn't enter but to this day I wonder how those glazed donuts were!
Have a happy Halloween!
Halloween's not really celebrated in Australia. But that being said - I just had a group of children come to the door. Managed to find some lollies to give them. My dog went ballistic and didn't stop barking until they were out of sight!
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, I haven't yet read Posionwood Bible!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, my Halloweens were pretty much like yours. When I was kid we went alone and we got full bars. We hardly get any kids -- this year we got none at all, last year I think we had 6 kids.
I guess kids go to safe Halloween parties and no longer go door to door -- even though we live in a lovely and very safe neighborhood.
I loved trick or treating when I was little. My mom made all my costumes. My favorite was my witch costume (which I vividly remember). I also enjoyed the Halloween parade my elementary school did. Walking through the neighborhood wearing my costume was a BIG deal.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a teenager and stopped going out, I passed out the candy with my friends who lived next door. They were 1 and 2 years older than me and we had so much fun. Of course we did eat some of the candy!
Like you, this month I've started reading more children's books. I plan to include them into my reading schedule.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
I don't remember getting full-sized bars (although I think mini bars are a relatively new development so I must have) but I do remember mapping out a route according to who gave the best treats (which would have meant bars, for sure!)
ReplyDeleteYou had a very productive October - I wish I could say as much :(
ReplyDeleteLast year I think we had the total of two trick or treaters. This year I anticipate the same, but still bought a couple bags of Snickers just in case....
We always had homemade costumes too. Mine seemed to always be a gypsy. And full-sized candy bars were the best! As long as I didn't get a bag full of that awful Bot-o-Honey, I was just fine.
ReplyDeleteHappy, Happy Halloween to you, my friend!
Sounds like a good month for you; I hope November is just as good.
ReplyDeleteWe don't get any trick or treaters in our neighborhood; it's too dark, no sidewalks, etc. But we're going downtown with my daughter where they have a "safe" trick or treating for the kids this afternoon
We get very few trick-or-treaters, so I bought our favorite mini's too! :-)
ReplyDeleteThere aren't very many kids in our neighborhood, so I don't bother to buy candy anymore. I bought a few treats for the girl next door, but otherwise, we're going to turn off the lights hibernate.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure I'm older than everyone...LOL. My memories of childhood are in the fifties. We lived in the country, so it was too far between houses, but we went to a neighbor's house and I remember getting walnuts.
ReplyDeleteWe dressed in outfits we made ourselves.
My older two kids enjoyed trick or treating (in the seventies), but my younger two had to be careful (in the eighties). We lived in a city and by then there had been some horrible incidents. We had to take the kids' candy to the hospital to be x-rayed before eating it.
Soon they were teens and went to parties.
My grandkids go to parties, because, again, they all live in cities. Sometimes my daughter brings my youngest grandson here. Since I've lived here, I've had no trick or treaters except for Noah.
Happy Halloween! Your reading list looks great. I'm going to check out some of those reviews.
Here's my salon (and I'm always forgetting to do a month-end wrap-up!).
http://accidentalmoments.wordpress.com/2010/10/31/277/
I love the Baby Ruth comic! We still get trick-or-treaters, and trick-or-treating is popular in our small town, so we're definitely taking the boys out later. If it's raining we might head to the local university dorms which advertise indoor trick-or-treating for kids.
ReplyDeleteHappy Halloween!
My kids are too old for trick or treating. Though I tried... LOL
ReplyDeleteGreat month. All new to me.
Happy Halloween!
http://fredasvoice.blogspot.com/2010/10/october-monthly-news.html
That cartoon is stinkin' hilarious!!!!!!! Gave me a great laugh today!
ReplyDeleteYou had a fantastic month of reading!!
Happy Halloween! I loved Halloween when I was young. My friends and I made our own costumes when we got old enough...one year I was a crayon, another year I was a bunch of grapes, another year my friends and I dressed up as the harlem globetrotters because we found these multi-colored afro wigs! An odd choice, a basketball player for a kid on crutches, but it was great fun! I wired a basketball to my crutch & carried it around with me! LOL A group of us went trick-or-treating all over the neighborhood and then came home to compare our 'loot' and swap candy. I thought it was so sad when that tradition primarily ended because of various crimes in different neighbothoods.
ReplyDeleteWe don't get many trick-or-treaters, if any, now. But I have some candy here just in case!
Your October reading list is great. I really like your idea of reading some children's books. I remember how much I loved the "Frog and Toad" books and so many of the Disney books. nd today there are so many good children's books.
Have a fun Halloween! I hope you're feeling well!
~ Amy
We only get a few trick or treaters but I always buy plenty of candy and carve pumpkins just in case. Happy Halloween!
ReplyDeleteHappy Halloween to you! That Baby Ruth was funny!!!
ReplyDeleteI used to love Halloween when I was a kid (probably the same era as you) and I used to get huge bags of candy. I don't remember my parents going with me either.
ReplyDeleteLast year we had no kids at all, but, like you, we bought some candy just in case. So far, I haven't given anything out but we might get alot of trick-or-treaters tonight.
You did great in October. I didn't do as well, but I haven't put up my list yet.
We don't get any trick-or-treaters, because we live on a hill. At most, friends come over and I give them as much candy as they can stand.
ReplyDeleteYou had a great reading month, Diane. Your comments about your own reading challenge cracked me up. :)
This is the first Halloween at our house so I'm curious how many kids we'll get. Can't wait.
ReplyDeleteAnd, my reading month was pretty awful. I only read two books. yikes. I have been busy with some other stuff though so hopefully november we'll be a bit better.
Happy Halloween! My kids have just reached the age where they will be passing out candy instead of going out to collect it. Though every year the amount of kids visiting gets smaller and smaller. :(
ReplyDeleteHappy Halloween to you too! We don't get a lot of trick or treaters either but that doesn't stop me from buying candy just in case ;)
ReplyDeleteI use to love trick or treating! It was the 60's for me too! And we walked the neighborhoods fear free and by ourselves! This year we went all out with spooky music outside and a few spooky decorations,but alas we only had a dozen children. Last year we did better with older kids, but they must have grown up and moved away in the last year! :-)
ReplyDeleteAs far as books go... all I can say is WOW, what a reading month you had! Thanks for sharing!
I'm currently reading "Moonlight Mile" ... I know it's not SUPPOSED to, but for some reason, it reminds me of the old Sam Spade P.I. type of books :) I have "The Distant Hours" by Kate Morton in my review pile, and am looking forward to it based on the comments I received in my "Mailbox" post when I included it in my received books. You've had a good month. I pretty much have sucked at all of my challenges, but I DID recently actually finish one; so I count myself as ahead!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I'm not in your "Books to Read Before I Die" challenge, I DO have a GoodReads list of books to read before I die, so I'm going to check out YOUR challenge, and then we can fail together! LOL!
Julie @ Knitting and Sundries
I just posted on my blog about how when I was young we didn't do Halloween at all, but we all celebrated Bonfire Night instead - but now bonfires and fireworks aren't nearly as prevalent, and kids tend to go trick or treating instead.
ReplyDeleteI remember the good old days in the 60's too. I miss the days of the full size candy bars and walking all over the neighborhood to trick or treat. My son is 16 now so no more trick or treating for him. I live in a townhome community and everyone just skips us and goes to all of the houses in the neighborhood. This year I was out of town the past 3 weekends so I didn't even carve a pumpkin!
ReplyDeleteLove that cartoon!!!
ReplyDeleteHalloween is a big event in our neighborhood, and I'm so excited that my son is part of it. We went out last night for about an hour and he had a blast. I love the feel of the neighborhood on Halloween ... full of kids and laughter and screams at the particularly scary houses!
We never got to go trick or treating when I was a kid. We lived outside of town and no one was willing to drive us into town. We haven't had any trick or treaters visit us in at least 30 years either.
ReplyDeleteMe too! I Trick-or-Treated in the 60's. We did all the things you talk about. My husband and I were just talking about how things have changed.
ReplyDeleteIt was fun finding your blog.
have a good day.
We hardly get any trick or treaters either, but we buy candy too. :)
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've experienced any proper Halloween and hope that one day before I "expire" (LOL) I'd get to do that.
ReplyDeleteYou've had a great reading month in October!
You are doing much better than me regarding challenges.
ReplyDeleteMy parents used to let us go trick or treating my ourselves too...this was in the 80's. Most of our costumes were made as well, I remember going as a mummy one year. My Mom used the cloth diapers she still had from when I was a baby...but I remember they kept falling off. lol!
Great Halloween post! I also have great Halloween memories, and we've got lots of Halloween traditions with our own kids now. My husband and I usually dress up along with the kids, going with whatever costume theme they choose. This year we were all rock stars! (you can see a photo on my Monday post, if you like!) I can't walk very far, but we usually go to a few houses nearby with the kids, just to greet our neighbors in costume! My husband used to take the boys and their friends around to the rest of the neighborhood, but they went on their own this year.
ReplyDeleteOnly downside here is that we only get a few trick-or-treaters - lots of empty-nesters in our neighborhood. We got 7 kids total this year! Because there are so few kids, some of our neighbors give out full-size candy bars, much to our sons' delight! Where I grew up, we got hundreds of trick-or-treaters, so smaller stuff was key.
Oh, and you had a great reading month! Poisonwood Bible ranks as one of my top 5 of all-time favorite books.
Sue
Diane -
ReplyDeleteOur boys are now 16 and 12 (how'd that happen?), so it's a long-standing Halloween tradition by now!
Sue