On Halloween
I did not go trick-or-treating when I was a child but All Hallows' Eve remains my favorite holiday.
Three days before Halloween in 1970, The New York Times published a short article warning trick-or-treaters to beware candy handed out by their neighbors or risk death and significant bodily harm. Here’s an excerpt from “Those Treats May Be Tricks:”
Take, for example, that plump red apple that Junior gets from a kindly old woman down the block. It may have a razor blade hidden inside. The chocolate “candy” bar may be a laxative, the bubble gum may be sprinkled with lye, the popcorn balls may be coated with camphor, the candy may turn out to be packets containing sleeping pills.
Even though I was born a few years after that article was published, pervasive and enduring stories of razor blades and poison laced candy coupled with extensive coverage in the local news of the Atlanta Child Murders and the Chicago Tylenol murders pretty much ensured that my brother and I did NOT go trick-or-treating on Halloween. Sure we got to ring the doorbells of a handful of families that we knew on our block and yell, “TRICK OR TREAT!,” but it was nothing like that scene in the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial where hordes of costumed children roam the streets unsupervised with nary an adult in sight.
Instead, where I grew up in Brooklyn, a couple of parents could be counted on to organize house parties. Halloween themed story hours were plentiful at the local library. And more than a few kids circumvented the whole strangers with candy are verboten phenomenon by trick-or-treating at local small businesses, zig-zagging from laundromat, to corner store, to Chinese food restaurant with plastic shopping bags or pillow cases to collect candy. If the holiday fell during the school week, an early dismissal to avoid Mischief Night pranks like throwing rotten eggs or water balloons filled with hair removal cream at city buses and random passersby was all but guaranteed. When we got home we watched It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and when Michael Jackson’s Thriller came out in 1983 we all gathered in the living room of the one family who had MTV to watch. But best of all, my parents regularly took my brother and me to the Village Halloween Parade in Manhattan.
Four years after that article in the Times, a mask maker and puppeteer dad put on a parade for his children and their friends in his Greenwich Village neighborhood. Back then, Greenwich Village, was still a haven for artists, activists, musicians, writers, creatives, counter culture and queer folk. The Stonewall Uprising had occurred just five years earlier and NYU’s campus hadn’t yet taken over huge swaths of the neighborhood. The event was family friendly and the costumes and creativity on display were incredible - and set a high bar. Today it is the biggest Halloween parade in the world! The parade coupled with the costumes my mother made each year for my brother and me, ensured my love for All Hallows' Eve forevermore.
When I became a mother, I looked forward to the challenge of trying to figure out how to bring my children’s costume ideas to life. There was the year my oldest asked, in all seriousness, to be the invisible man. Another year he asked to be a Minecraft block of gold ore. My middle son chose a DIY it’s raining cats and dogs costume we found online and I took it a step further by making and attaching a cloud made of paper-mache and pillow stuffing complete with LED lights to look like lightening to his umbrella. Other favorites include an Apple & Eve juice box and The Childlike Empress from “The Never Ending Story.”
Making costumes was never a chore. To the contrary, it served as a creative and even meditative challenge to break up the monotony that is sometimes the reality of parenting very young children. We repurposed items like a laundry baskets (to made R2D2’s body), and upcycled clothing they’d outgrown (to make feathers) and because I don’t sew, I became a master of the hot glue gun. The kids helped and sometimes, the costumes didn’t work out. Like the time I attempted a paper-mache mask in the likeness of Sans from the video game Undertale but the work-around we came up with remains one of my favorite costumes of all. Other times, I bought their costumes. (I am a parent of four, not a masochist.) The point is we had fun. My son’s Invisible Man costume 👇🏾:
These days Halloween is a pretty chill affair. Because of Covid we’ve yet to experience Halloween in Tokyo, maybe next year I’ll be more keen to navigate massive crowds. Our newest tradition is an early spooky sit-down dinner, complete with a themed menu followed by scary movies after. We tend to watch the same ones year after year: “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Ghostbusters” and Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds.” Occasionally I’ll throw in a really old classic like Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein and just like when I was a kid in the ‘80s we watch Charlie Brown and listen to Michael Jackson. As they get older, newer films like Vampires Vs. the Bronx (bloodsuckers and gentrification!), The Lost Boys (one of moody tween me’s favorites!) and Attack the Block (aliens from outer space land in gritty London!) have been added to the mix.
For me and mine, Halloween has always been a celebration of creativity, imagination and fun. I like spooky entertainment and making things with my kiddos. Also, real talk, I like Brach’s candy corn. So if you celebrate, have fun on the 31st! And if you’re in Tokyo and know where I can get candy corn, hit me up!
A Few Things:
Over on Night Water I learned ‘90s hit “Zombie” by the Cranberries is a protest song about the death of two children during the Troubles. (I had no idea!) I was immediately reminded of “Zombie” by Fela Kuti, a scathing (and impossible not to dance to) critique of the Nigerian military and government. Despite the reference to the undead, neither belong on the same Halloween playlist as “The Purple People Eater.”
On the other hand, "My Family" by Migos, Karol G, Snoop Dogg and Rock Mafia should be on your party list. Made for the 2019 Addams Family animated feature it's kinda a bop for no good reason.
Finally, big-up my beautiful and brilliant SIL Mya Spalter. Her book “Enchantments,” is about witchcraft and her time as an employee at NYC's oldest occult store. I’m biased of course, but not only is she a gifted writer but she also has one of the most soothing audiobook narrator voices you’ll ever hear. You can listen to an excerpt here.
ICYMI:
In Newsletter No. 18, I shared some observations about listening and how it’s done in Japan as opposed to what I am accustomed to as an American.
❤️ That’s it for this week. Click the ❤️ and subscribe. Hearts make me happy. ❤️ Lots of hearts. ❤️ All of the hearts.❤️
TELL ME:
Do you celebrate All Hallows' Eve? Trick-or-treated as a child? And most importantly candy corn or no? Let’s talk about it in the comments. 🎃
Memories of Halloween MUST include a handmade, sewn, beautfil costume made big enough to go OVER your parka....Halloween in Kansas in the 70s must go on!
This was definitely a treat to read!❤️