Bah Pumpkin

When I was little, I loved Halloween.  My parents made us a turnip with a candle inside, and two shiny nails to keep the lid on straight, and a string handle.  We had costumes to dress up in, and always a rhyme, a joke or a song to offer.  It was guising, never trick-or-treating, and you were expected to do something in exchange for a handful of monkey nuts, a satsuma, or if you were lucky some sweets.

We only went round to houses of friends, and very occasionally if a house had proper decorations and you knew it was someone else from the school you might go there.

Now Halloween seems to be about spending 1 thoughtless minute getting a highly flammable supermarket costume then going out in marauding herds demanding sweets from unknown neighbours with ghastly pumpkins.  I don't see the magic myself. 

It's quite intimidating - one group I saw had at least 9 mums with kids in pushchairs and 20 kids running round in costumes banging on doors and hiding.

CyclopsJnr seems pleased with his pumpkin sweet-bag and other stuff from his childminder, but it's not the Halloween of my youth.

Grump.