When I was a young’un, say, around 1965, Halloween was an exciting event at my house. That probably hasn’t changed in most American suburban households, but many of the details definitely have.
To start off the week of Halloween, my mom would begin popping big kettles of popcorn. We popped and bagged many big kettles of popcorn. While we did that, she would start another large pot of some syrup concoction that only she knew the recipe for.
It was a little like maple syrup, but not quite, and she would reduce it to a thick, viscous consistency. After a few days of this amazing, industrious kitchen magic, we kids got the call. It was time to make the “popcorn balls”.
Yes, folks, at my house we handmade hundreds of homemade popcorn balls each year to give away for Halloween.
Others made them too, but the whole neighborhood knew about ours, and we would have a long line of trick-or-treaters at our door well before dark, hoping to get one of those delicacies before we inevitably ran out.
Like the other kids in my neighborhood, my typical costume was something like a torn T-shirt with charcoal marks and grease pencil on my face. Either a bum, a hobo, a pirate, or a cowboy- those were the standby costumes for most of the boys, basically similar and mostly homemade.
Then grab a pillowcase and head out with my friends, none of whom were over 10. We would roam around unescorted, knocking on doors and repeating “Trick or Treat” until well after the streetlights came on, and then went home to see how we did and who got the most and the best candy.
That was a fairly standard Halloween in my neighborhood when I was growing up, and I‘d venture to say it was pretty typical of most middle-class suburban Halloween nights in America from about the 1950s through the mid 1970’s. But while some things have stayed the same… Kids still say “Trick or Treat,” but much has changed.
Our Halloween was basically a “free-range” affair, with us kids left to our own devices. Whereas today’s is much more likely to be organized. When I watch the trick-or-treaters come up and down my street these days, I still see them traveling in groups, but almost always with a couple of parents chaperoning them.
Beyond the basic house-to-house action, schools, churches, shopping areas, homeowners associations, and community groups may host costume parades or other organized events, using online calendars and cell phones to help parents coordinate their kids’ whereabouts and activities.
Simple homemade costumes, once common, have largely been replaced by store-bought costumes inspired by TV shows, games, movies, or cartoon characters, made with flame-resistant, reflective material for safety.
Back then, some households handed out tangerines or apples instead of candy, but that fell out of favor when The New York Times ran a story around 1970 about hypothetical razors and other dangers that could be hidden in Halloween apples. As a result, ironically, many parents thought fresh fruit was far too dangerous for kids to eat.
In Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego Counties, and elsewhere, some hospitals offered free X-rays of Halloween Candy bags to look for metal objects such as pins, needles, or razors. To my knowledge, none were ever found, and participation dropped off, so the practice stopped.
And homemade treats like my mom’s Popcorn Balls? Forget it. Even if someone went to the trouble of making them, no rational parent today would let their child eat them. They would just be tossed out.
So welcome to the new normal. It isn’t worse, it isn’t better, it’s just different. But then so are cars, telephones, TVs and most other things.
But on Oct. 31, as it has done every year since 2001, the City of Encinitas, along with the Downtown Encinitas Merchants Association (D.E.M.A.), is hosting a “Safe Trick-Or-Treat” on Highway 101 in downtown Encinitas from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. And on Halloween night, after eating all that candy, remember to brush your teeth. Happy Halloween.
Jerome Stocks is a former mayor and city councilman of Encinitas. Read more of his commentaries here.
