Where’s The Treat In This Trick?

We made our first family trip to the local pumpkin patch this season and Fall was definitely in the air. I love this time of year and it is so fun to see the scarecrows and the autumnal colors dotting the landscape.

But yet another childhood tradition that you and I most likely grew up with is disappearing for the youngsters today–wearing your costume to school on Halloween.

Remember those days? I can see and smell and taste and feel every second of those marvelous days of wonder. And who could forget the old fashioned Cooper Costumes. There were a million different characters but they all had the nostalgic “rubber band” holding the mask to our gleeful faces and the smell of the plastic had the power to repulse or inspire depending on your age.

I fondly remember bobbing for apples and having the school gym converted into a spooky haunted house. I can still see those lockers looking like caskets peeking out from behind all that dried ice!

Looking at the school materials my children have brought home this year, it looks like Halloween costumes are NOT permitted. But the kids can wear free dress.

Oh boy. Yippie. So cool.

So LAME.

Why do we keep stripping our children of everything fun from these character and life shaping years?

I bet there are many factors at work here.

Kids will be too scared by some costumes. Some kids can’t afford cool costumes, and less fortunate kids will have their self esteem destroyed.

Perverts. Columbine. Terrorism. Heat stroke. Allergies to latex, makeup or fake blood.

Whatever the excuses, I am not buying ANY of them.

Thank God the pumpkin patch still had the petting zoo and the train and the pony rides.

But for goodness sakes, let the kids wear their costumes to school for Halloween. Let’s not forget to sprinkle some treats along the road of tricks that children have to traverse in today’s sanitized America.