“When witches go riding, and black cats are seen. The moon laughs and whispers, ‘tis near Halloween.” — 19th century postcard.
BOOOOOO! Halloween! It’s my absolute favorite holiday. Yes, even more than Christmas! Now I know I’m no Morticia (from the Addams Family), or Endora, (from Bewitched) or even close to Glinda,(from The Wizard of Oz) but I just may have some tricks left up my sleeve this Halloween for our Trick or Treaters and a whole lot of delicious candy they’ll howl about!
You see I’m a child of the 60’s and lots of my childhood memories are tied to things that are Halloween. I grew up rooting for the good witch and booing the bad witch on the Wizard of Oz. What I would give to pop into a room like Endora or twitch my nose like Samantha Stevens did on Bewitched and my house would instantly clean itself!
I read Casper the Friendly Ghost and Wendy the Good Little Witch comic books. And let’s face it; it was always Halloween at The Munsters and the Addams Family’s houses. My brother and I were actually allowed to stay up late and watch those hilarious shows on Friday night.
I grooved to “The Monster Mash” by Bobby “Boris” Pickett, a number 1 hit in 1962, and danced hundreds of times to “Thriller” by Michael Jackson. Yes those were the days my friends. You bet your candy corn!
I remember my dad driving me and my younger brother to G. C. Murphy’s and picking out that year’s Halloween costume. The costume’s came in a cardboard box and I remember choosing a yellow Tweety bird costume one year and a black cat another year. My older sister Kathy would also make me costumes. One year she made a red and white striped clown costume complete with a huge ruffled white collar edged in red ric rac, a tall pointed hat with 3 red pom poms and a red yarn wig!
We’d go to a local farm and pick out our pumpkins and Indian corn. We’d bring the pumpkins home and spread newspaper on the kitchen floor. My dad would cut the top off and we’d scoop out the seeds with an ice cream scoop. Then we’d carve them into a funny or scary Jack O’ Lantern.
But the very best part of Halloween was going trick or treating through our neighborhood. When we were younger my older sister would take me and my brother out as soon as it got dark. We’d grab a shopping bag or an orange plastic Halloween bag to help us collect all our treats. We’d walk up to the people’s front doors, ring their doorbells and yell “Trick or Treat!!” Then the neighbors would try and guess who we were as chocolate Hershey bars, Clark bars, popcorn balls, Milky Ways, 3 Musketeers, Pay Days, Oh Henrys, Snickers, Butterfingers, and Good n Plenty, were plopped into our bags.
When our bags got too heavy to carry, we’d head home to count our treasures. Then my brother and I would separate our candy into piles on our living room carpet and trade each other for the ones we liked the best!
Halloween is creeping around the corner, and it’s time to stock up on some of the long-standing favorites and try some of the new candies from Candy Favorites just out for Halloween.
There’s Twizzlers Caramel Apple Filled Twists, Wonka Halloween Fright Tins, Haribo Vampire Bats, Candy Fangs, RM Palmer Creepy Peepers Mix, and even Box of Boogers, but the kids in your neighborhood will wonder who filled their bags and pillow cases with all these wickedly good treats.
So dress up, throw a spooky party, decorate your yard, and be ready with bags of delicious candy when those costumed kids ring your doorbell and yell “Trick or Treat. Smell my feet. Give me something good to eat!”
I’ve shared some of my favorite Halloween candy memories, and I’d love to hang around for a spell, but now it’s your turn at bat. At the end of my blog, tell me your best Halloween candy memory and I will award my favorite a $50 Sweet Certificate to CandyFavorites.com. Happy Haunting!
