Halloween

About twenty years ago, Halloween was always one of the most fun holidays in my family.  By August, I would already be planning how I would decorate the front yard of my parent’s home with the assistance of my brothers and sisters.  One Halloween night I had so many people lined up to receive candy in our neighborhood that a line formed as the LA County Sheriff’s patrol car would past slowly down our street.

Parents along with their children would get the life scared out of them every Halloween Year.  I remember any child under five that came to my parent’s home for candy would be spared unless their parents would ask for us to scare them and we did; a little girl in purple balloons was a bunch of grapes.  She had gotten so scared that she ran into the near by rose bushes and had half of her costume of balloons popped. 

One Halloween year, a teen decided throw a firecracker at my brother who was in costume to scare the trick-or-treaters.  Once that happened I decided not to decorate for Halloween night again. I couldn’t put my family in harms way due to someone else’s stupidity.  Parents came the following year and were greatly disappointed by saying” I can’t believe you didn’t decorate!  We look forward to your house every year.”  I apologized, told them what had happened the previous Halloween year and most of them understood why I made the decision.

This gave my younger sister an opportunity to give candy away with out scaring anyone.  My 34-year-old sister never really enjoyed scaring anyone and didn’t take any part of the Halloween years of the past in scaring trick-or-treaters.

My 34-year –old sister had two activities she would participate in every year for Halloween.  Our neighbor across the street would always have an annual Halloween party and my mom and sister would always attend.  My sister’s costumes changed every year, one year she was huge green M&M.  The following year she was a witch and the next year a crossing guard.  My sister and mom would always come back from the party with goodies and a smile.  As the MS started to become more aggressive, my sister stopped going to the Halloween party across the street.  The other activity on Halloween night for my sister would be to give away the candy to the trick-or-treaters. A chair would be placed by the front door at the end of the front yard entrance.  She would be wearing her coat to make sure she kept warm for the evening.   My sister would get very excited when she would spot children walking down the street coming towards our home.  She especially loved to see when the trick-or-treaters were babies or small children.   You could hear my sister say” Mom.  Look….here comes Spiderman!”   Sometime you can hear her say, “What are you suppose to be?”   For hours, my sister would sit and wait patiently for trick-or-treaters on Halloween night.  We would be keeping a watchful eye on my sister just in case she needed more candy or got tired and wanted t come in the house for the night.  My sister’s face light up as she said, ”Your welcome” while giving out the candy.

It’s been three years since my sister gave away any candy on Halloween night.  Now, I describe to my sister every trick-or-treater that comes to our door on Halloween night.  My sister would just smile, as she would hear the excitement of the night from her bedroom window.  Nightmare Before Christmas sound track would be blazing as children came to our home on Halloween night.  However, it’s not quite the same as having my sister giving the candy away.  I miss seeing her sit in the dark, on the folding chair, wrapped in her cozy coat with a dish of candy in her lap.  I miss hearing her voice calling for my mom to come and see what the children are wearing for the night.  I long to see my 34 year-old-sister dressed up to go to a Halloween party.  I don’t miss scaring trick-or-treaters anymore, but I sure miss my sister’s Halloween adventures.