I  have always looked forward to Halloween and all that came with it. When I was a kid in elementary school we would have a day when we would dress up in our costumes. We would as a class go from one class to the next showing off our costumes with the other classes. After that we would have a little Halloween party in our classroom and often our teacher would read us a story. In my neighborhood I would get together with all my friends and we would go out trick or treating throughout the our neighborhood, the next one and the one after that. We would literally run from house to house trying to get as much candy as possible. Back then the masks we would wear were nothing like the ones today, you couldn’t see out of them or breath out of them. Then as we would finally get tired we would head to the park that was at the end of the road, right in the middle of our neighborhood and they would have a giant bonfire and they would have hot (always would burn my tongue) chocolate and Tootsie rolls. The candies back then were the small candy bars, the peanut butter tasting (black and orange wrapped) candy, pixie sticks (pure sugar) and lots of gum. Then for the days that followed we would bring our candy to school and trade with our other friends. As I got even older, the nights would last even later for Trick or Treating, if it was a weekend we would always sleep over at my friend’s house, the one were his parents didn’t care how late we were out. We sometimes would be out until midnight. If we saw a house with its lights on we would ring the doorbell. They would usually drop any candy they had left into our bags and shut the light off. We would then go back to my friends house and watch a bunch of slasher movies. In high school Halloween meant it was time to smash pumpkins (don’t judge me..LOL), and we were basically a bunch of juvenile delinquents. Now as I have grown older it was the fun of taking my children out and getting them all dressed up into their cute costumes. Of course some times it wasn’t only the kids getting a treat, one of our neighbors were we use to live would give the parents a beer or a drink. Now we have a house that everyone calls the Jell-O shot house. I always tell my kids that all the Peanut M&M’s are mine and they are the cost of me taking them around the neighborhood. It does seem that more and more this holiday is less community oriented as it was when I was a kid and just a holiday for candy and spending money on outrageous costumes. I mean what kid needs a $100.00 costume. Well I just want to say Happy Halloween to everyone. If you don’t celebrate it that is ok to, but don’t judge me if I do. It is just a day to enjoy being a kid no matter how old you are.