My parents had no qualms about sending me out into the night alone on Halloween. Their only rule (really, my Mom's rule as my Dad didn't even know what I was doing most of the time) was that I was not to go Trick or Treating before 7:00 p.m. because "people are still eating". When the time did come, I'd slip on my Ben Cooper plastic mask with eye-holes so small, a mouse couldn't slip through them, and head out into the darkness without a flashlight or a scrap of reflective tape, walking a single-lane road without sidewalks. I'd like to think my Mom at least said, "Listen for cars" (I couldn't watch for them because, again, the eye-holes), but I don't think she did. Panting through that tiny slit of a mouth (I had to walk a pretty good distance to even take in 10 homes), I managed to avoid being hit or abducted.
Clearly, other parents in the '60's and '70's did concern themselves with their children's safety and did provide them with illumination on Halloween night as is evidenced by these flashlights.
Be sure to take some sort of illumination with you this Halloween eve; nobody likes squashed treats or trickers. For further safety tips, watch this Halloween Saftey film from 1977 and after that, head on over the Countdown for more fun.
like you, we had to wait until dark (because people were eating), and we just ran out into the night without flashlights or anything. somehow we lived. i can't imagine trick or treating now -- i mean, in parking lots? or at your parent's work? it's a tragedy. sorry kids, you have lots of cool things now, but trick or treating was *definitely* better back then.
ReplyDeleteI have never taken my kids to a "Trunk or Treat". That's cheating. My kids get a little better experience trick or treating our neighborhood, but still not the same as when I was doing it.
DeleteWe got to walk home from school and trick or treat all the way and then go out again after dinner and get more candy! I didn't need a flashlight - I had siblings - lots of them.
ReplyDeleteWow! Double treats! You were lucky. And that's when you could still wear a costume to school (my kids aren't allowed).
Delete