One of the first things parents teach their children is not to talk to strangers.
Well, okay maybe there are a few things kids get taught before that, like how to stand, walk and not scream every two hours during the night for food… but the “stranger danger” talk is right up there.
I can clearly remember my mother warning me about speaking to strangers, and especially not to “take candy from people I didn’t know,” because they might be maniacs or child molesters intent on causing me harm or spiriting me away.
Then every October 31, they (my parents, not the crazy maniacs and potential child molesters) would put me in an ill-fitting Spiderman mask that I could barely see out of properly, and send me out – at nighttime no less – to wander the neighbourhood, knocking on doors to actually ask… nay, demand at the threat of some retaliatory prank, those strangers for candy.
Wow, talk about parental hypocrisy and mixed messages.
But Halloween has become my favourite celebration over the years.
Forget about the holiday with the jolly fat man in the red suit. Who cares about a few toys and some new underpants wrapped under a slowly dying pine tree when I can spend a night dressed up like Batman without anyone calling the authorities?
You can keep your turkey dinners and ham platters… give me a shopping bag filled with cavity and diabetes-inducing toffees, gumballs and chocolates any day.
But parental paranoia is still alive and kicking – even more so today – and Halloween is no longer as carefree as it was when I was a youth, wandering around in a flammable costume purchased at the last minute from Sears with my pockets stuffed with firecrackers and the assorted tools of Halloween vandalism like rotten eggs and toilet paper. Heck, thanks to there being no such thing as the “Internet” when I was a kid, we were unaware that there was even something called “Halloween safety.”
But despite there now being about five supervising helicopter parents for every one, reflective tape-covered trick-or-treater who isn’t allowed to go out past 5 p.m., Halloween is still, in my mind, a great time to be a kid… or a childish adult.
So, this year I encourage you to hearken back to your days of youth, perhaps join your kids in dressing up (if you don’t already), and show them that scary is fun and the only thing to fear is getting a crappy granola bar from that stranger, instead of yummy candy.
Happy Halloween.
