Anything Goes!
By
Gerry Niskern
A good question was posed online the other day. What should the cut off age be for kids trick or treating?
Some say it should be twelve or fourteen; and even then the tricksters should be in costume, in the spirit of the holiday. No one appreciates having the door bell ring at ten o’clock to find a group of teens, not even wearing a mask, holding out pillowcases to be filled.
In West Virginia where I grew up Halloween parties for school age kids in private homes were the order of the day. The most important aspect of the party was to be the last one who’s identity was guessed. Everyone went to great lengths to masquerade, arrive separately from the siblings, anything to fool the party-goers.
Back then, the older teenage boys took the “ trick” part seriously on Halloween. I can remember one late evening when our family arrived home to find all our porch furniture up high in our big oak tree. Another year the older farm boys actually dug up the pieces of cement that formed our walkway to the house. After our lights were out for the evening they proceeded to drop the large chunks onto the front porch. It sounded like a bomb and our little frame house shook violently. On other years they would throw handfuls of dry corn at the windows after dark. “That’s nothing” my mom used to say. “When I was a kid the older boys used to roam the town turning over out-houses!”
So actually, if the teens don’t want to go with the little kids and are not invited to the elaborate adult parties, where does that leave them? Back to a crazy tee shirt and a pillowcase. They better go trick or treating earlier because due to the Pandemic and supply chains interruptions, there is a shortage of candy this year. Candy companies are struggling to meet their customers demands.
I couldn’t even find my favorite, candy corn. Everyone was sold out!