At our house for Halloween in the late 1950's, my sisters and I wore homemade costumes. The most common were the hobo, the ghost, and the gypsy. These were easy to put together out of old clothes or, if a ghost, from an old clean sheet, cut to size. The hobo and gypsy relied on oversized clothes and accessories like a folded red printed bandana tied to a stick for the hobo to carry over her shoulder and lots of costume jewelry for the gypsy. Black crayon, or some form of charcoal, made the ghost look spookier and the hobo a bit more ragged, while Mom's makeup made the gypsy both mysterious and glamorous.
We each carried a plain paper grocery bag as we walked from house to house in our neighborhood. We went no further, especially after the news story of razor blades being found in apples on some vague Halloween night.
We never went trick-or-treating alone either. Our father always went with us. We were shy kids and only hesitantly repeated, "Trick or treat," holding out our bags. In those days, it really was a treat to have a piece of candy dropped into our bags, and we sure were hoping we didn't get any fruit or a dollar bill. They just weren't the same treat as a piece of candy.
Once home we carefully picked over our candy, dividing into favorites and trade-ables and were able to have a piece a day each day following Halloween. My favorites were always the Hershey Krackel and Three Muskateers bars. But one day the bags of candy would be gone, and that was that until the next Halloween. It's just how it was.
(c) Copyright 2016 Malvena Baxter
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