I have never enjoyed Halloween.
 
As a child, I did not like the school Halloween Carnivals.  I did not like asking people for candy - "Trick or Treat".  I did not like some of the "tricks" that were played on people.  I hated dressing up in a costume.  The masks smelled bad and I could barely see out the eye holes.  If I were a ghost, my feet got tangled up in the bedsheet I was wearing.  I got water up my nose when I bobbed for apples.  I didn't like "haunted houses" or sticking my hands in cold damp spaghetti (brains) or in peeled grapes (eyeballs).  I didn't like traipsing around in the dark from house to house.  There was nothing I liked about the day or the stuff we were "required" to do.  I did not like to carve a pumpkin.  The stuff inside is slimey and I did not like the smell.
 
As a teenager, I could hold myself above such petty stuff and was not expected to partake.  Actually, just the opposite.  It was not appropriate to play tricks on people and we were too old to expect treats.  There were some kids from Snob Hill (yes, it was a part of town actually called that) who hid in Sulphur Draw (yes, it was actually a "draw" in the middle of a park area in town) and egged cars or threw other nasty things.  I am sure there were other diabolical activities, but as a Christian young person, I really did not know a lot about what happened on Halloween unless it made the paper.  And that was a bad thing.
 
As an adult, I moved to a town where they celebrated Halloween for a month.  October was known as Mischief Month and it was terrible.  They soaped everyone's windows, pulled corn out of the fields and used those big stalks with the huge roots as roadblocks, they threw corn at windows and they even picked up my children's swing set and set it in the middle of the street.  The elderly were not immune to their shenanigans either.  You couldn't clean up until November came.  It didn't do any good.  I never did get to where I enjoyed carving jack-o-lanterns, even with my children.
 
Now I see grown men and women going house to house with the children to "trick or treat".  Seriously!  And you are afraid not to treat them.  I do not turn on my porch light.  I do not buy candy to give out anymore.  I don't have to carve jack-o-lanterns anymore.  I have a pie pumpkin in my kitchen to make a "scratch" pumpkin pie for my son-in-law when he returns from TDY but none for carving.
 
Our church has a Trunk or Treat party/carnival at the church for the children but it is not on Halloween.  It is on a Saturday afternoon for about 2 hours.  The kids can jump in one of those blown up air thing.  I haven't a clue what they call them.  We have cotton candy, snow cones and games to play.  One fellow does clean out pumpkins and explains to the kids how God cleans out our lives just like we clean the gunk out of the pumpkin, etc.  I will not be helping him with this.
 
I don't think I ever heard the true tale about the origin of Halloween.  I knew the jack-o-lanterns were to scare off evil spirits.  I knew I didn't want to even think about witches and goblins and ghosts coming out at Halloween.  We always tried to keep our pets from harms way, especially our black kitties.  So, I found the information very interesting and have passed it on to members of my family and my church family.
 
I am very happy to know that I was right all these years when I disliked Halloween.  I never heard of anything good happening on this date - well, unless you consider my son-in-law's birthday good!!  Yeah, I do.  He is a blessing from Halloween, Oct. 31.
 
blessings to all