Staff Editorial: Ghosts of Halloween’s past

It is true, the concept of trick-or-treating is an odd one, but we most likely all remember dressing up and gallivanting our neighborhoods in search for the best candy.

When we were kids, it was simple to stick to our parents’ sides or travel in packs of friends for the evening after the school Halloween party, complete with orange and black sugary cupcakes.

Now, in our 20s, the focus is less on candy and scary costumes, and more on which Halloween party will be the most fun, which bar has the lowest cover charge (not Brock’s) or where on campus to find Dean Rucker dressed as Winnie the Pooh for the free candy.

The costumes for college students have an interesting range. There are those who go all out with a unique costume, the ones that sew their own costumes or the ones that go as something expected limited options such as The Joker or a cat.

There are fine lines for women who want to wear more than the Halloween store costumes that barely cover more than lingerie. For the men, costumes are either slim-picking, very overdone or cliché.

As a result of budgets and time constraints, college costumes are also generally cheap and simple to put together. The half dozen Goodwill stores in the Fredericksburg area always come in handy in October.

Here at the Bullet, we’ve had some laughs sharing old Halloween stories from when we were kids, and we hope you all enjoy reminiscing with us.

I went trick-or-treating since I was young enough to walk, and until I was old enough to stay out past curfew at 16 wearing way too much make up.

My best memories of Halloween include dressing up as a majorette in a decades-old costume and sorting my candy out on my living room floor the next day like the neurotic child I still am.

I also was one of those children who was afraid of Halloween, like the time I wanted to be a devil but decided I would be terrified of myself and instead went as something less intimidating—a hippie.

At those unorganized elementary school parades I always avoided staring the Scream masks in the eyes as they poured fake blood down their white faces with that hidden button.

As a child I had an unhealthy addiction to candy, which still lasts today. I remember coming home every year with a bag stuffed to the brim with candy, and that “bag” was more like a duffle.

My sister and I would dump out our bags and take stock of our plunder. Being a young entrepreneur, I traded the candy I didn’t like for what I actually wanted from my sister’s horde.

We stacked all of our candy in piles and hid the ones we really liked, leaving Mom and Dad with only heath bars and what was deemed “healthy” snacks.

Even now I love Halloween. I’m not supposed to dress up and trick-or-treat anymore, so now I just steal from the big pot of candy that sits at home for the neighborhood kids. Still, Halloween will always be a fun and goofy time for me, and I will continue to celebrate it with the relish of my childhood.

When I was seven, I was playing tug of war outside early in the evening on Halloween with my best friend. Unfortunately, my friend, who was stronger than me, won the game and tugged me into a hole. When I fell into the hole, which was a fairly large crater, I broke my arm. My dad brought me to the emergency room to fix my arm, but I was adamant on going trick-or-treating that night. Instead of lying around without any candy, the doctor gave me a set of scrubs and I went trick-or-treating as a “broken doctor” for the night.