When I was a kid, I really enjoyed Halloween. We could go Trick-or-Treating anywhere in town and be given the best homemade treats you can imagine — cookies and fudge, all unwrapped — along with popcorn balls, apples and regular-size candy bars because there was no such thing as a snack-size candy bar. I still enjoyed Halloween when my kids were young, but it was with caution for their safety. We carved pumpkins into interesting jack-o’-lanterns and spent weeks creating homemade costumes, in an effort to win a prize at a Halloween party or school carnival.
I remember dressing up as Pocahontas and making the costume out of a burlap bag, which was very uncomfortable. I grew up on a dairy farm where burlap feed bags were plentiful. I washed it in my mother’s washing machine and made a terrible mess! The burlap got clean and smelled somewhat better, but it was still very scratchy like wool. The scariest costume I created was when I dressed up as a doomsday ghoul. I dyed a bedsheet gray and made a hooded robe out of it along with a scythe to carry. Creativity is still out there, but you don’t see many homemade costumes anymore.