Politics, Moderate

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Politics

Memories of a Non-Political Halloween

Tom Purcell on

Halloween was fun while it lasted.

For decades it has been the one day of the year we could all forget our worries and live in the moment.

When I was a kid in the 1970s, Halloween was for kids.

As the weather became chilly and the leaves turned brilliant colors, we knew our annual candy haul would happen soon.

We didn’t put much effort into our costumes — any old sheet could be converted into a ghost outfit — but planning our trick-or-treat route took hours.

Since our parents wouldn’t let us begin trick or treating until it got dark out — and since we had to be home before 8 p.m. — Tommy Guillen and I refined our routes every year with the intensity of logistics executives.

 

We’d hit the well-to-do homes on the other side of the railroad tracks first.

Those people gave away full-size delicacies, including Hershey's, Nestle Crunch, Milk Duds, Almond Joy, Snickers, Milky Way, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and my favorite, the Mallow Cup.

The only downside with well-to-do people was that, because their homes are farther apart, we had to travel a greater distance to earn that name-brand candy.

We’d then return to our own neighborhood of modest homes and then hit the small post-WWII ranch homes a few blocks away.

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Copyright 2021 Tom Purcell, All Rights Reserved. Credit: Cagle.com

 

 

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