Trick or treat, bah humbug

The memory of "Tall Betsy" haunted me for years. At night when I closed my eyes, I would see her bobbing towards me just like she did that Halloween night when I was four-years-old. The tallest, scariest ghost I had ever seen. Well, the only ghost I had ever seen.

In reality, "Tall Betsy" was the ghost my older brother created using a broom, a pillow, a sheet and some string. It was a Halloween prank he had learned from our grandmother.

Some folks love Halloween and the pranks, decorations, and candy that goes with it. Others do not. I fall in the "do not" category. Maybe it was "Tall Betsy's" fault but I simply never got into the holiday.

I thought that would change when I had children of my own and I could get caught up in their excitement. But it didn't. At least not in the beginning.

My first real Halloween experience as a mom came when my daughter was three-years-old. She wanted to be a fairy princess. I found the perfect costume complete with a white gown and sparkling crown. My husband and I were more excited than she was. "Get your crown! It's time to go trick or treating," we called. "No," she said adamantly, "I don't want to wear it." No amount of convincing could persuade her to wear the crown.

It was cold that year so she became just a little girl in a blue coat with something white hanging down from underneath.

The following year, she wanted to be a witch. My husband and I waited patiently for her class to come filing out of the building for the pre-school Halloween parade. Out came Batman followed by Cinderella and Snow White. Where was our little witch? And then we saw her. She was no witch at all. She was wearing the dress she had worn to school. Seems she didn't want to participate in the Halloween parade. Seems she felt a lot like I did about Halloween.

But when it came to my son, it was a different story. Through him, I gradually gained an appreciation for the holiday. At three-years-old, he wanted to be Barney the Purple Dinosaur. On Halloween night, dressed in his purple dinosaur costume, he took off running to the first house on the hill. I will never forget the sight of his tail swishing back and forth as he ran.

He continued to run joyously from house to house all the way to the end of the street. I didn't mind carrying him home since his feet were hurting from wearing Barney slippers instead of his tennis shoes. He was happy and so was I.

Even after he gave up Trick-or-treating, he still had the Halloween spirit. With the help and encouragement of his father (not mine), he put together a delightful prank, a table with a bowl full of candy and a secret hole in the bottom. When kids grabbed the candy, he grabbed their hands from under the table. It was the best prank I had seen since "Tall Betsy."

In his senior year of high school, my son convinced me to carve pumpkins. Until that year, my children had only been allowed to paint their pumpkins and even that wasn't an annual event. I actually enjoyed the entire process and proudly displayed the first jack-o-lantern I had ever carved on the front steps alongside son's. (pictured below)

By the time I got a glimmer of happiness out of Halloween, it was over. My son went off to college. These days my only concern is how much candy to buy to have just enough so I won't eat what's left in the bowl.

Now when October 31st rolls around, I'm simply reminded that I no longer have children in the house to enjoy it ... or not.

Missing my children on Halloween!