If we are very lucky, the last day of October is usually full of color contrasted against a clear blue sky, chilly, with a warm sun, and full of the last of summer’s emerald green grass.  It is a time for apple houses to be visited, and wet autumn leaves to be smelled, with their earthy sweetness. When the kids were younger, this day was punctuated by the annual costuming, an event that took a good month to plan.  It seemed as if no sooner had they begun school than my children were asking me for their new costumes. 

My daughter had very specific requests, but varied her elaborate designs each year, often going for inflated versions of classic Halloween figures.  One year, however, we entered her in a dog and human costume competition with her beagle, Sally.  The competition asked for the dogs to be dressed, but I did not like the idea that little Sally would be sitting in the afternoon sun in uncomfortable human clothes.  It just seemed cruel, so I dressed my daughter to look like a beagle instead.  My daughter was so upset and embarrassed that she was the only one dressed in costume. I believe she thought all the cruelty had been heaped onto her, but, in the end, she and Sally won.  She still didn’t know it until we got back to the car.  Luckily we filmed the whole thing, and she could hear for herself that she won, because I’m sure she never would have believed me otherwise. I think the blue ribbon helped to wipe away the feelings of misuse quite a bit!

My son’s requests were quite different, however. He had barely sampled a small collection of costumes before he decided, at the ripe old age of 5, that he would forever after dress as a Civil War soldier.  I could not have asked for a more appreciative recipient, though, as he continued to wear the costumes at home, re-enacting famous battles in the yard with our dogs, who became Confederates or fellow soldiers by turn.  By the summer’s end, usually the coats would no longer button and the cloth had faded from hours of endless play in the sun, but by Halloween, he knew he would have a shiny new costume to start the process all over again.  Eventually, for his senior pictures, I was finally able to gift him with a genuine re-enactors costume, and the images, from age 5 to 18, are almost a seamless record of his growth in the same outfit.

Whether a soldier or a dog, a dinosaur or a witch, the kids would burst through the door after school, barely able to wait until dark, so they could put on their costumes and begin their Trick-or-Treat night.  I always had the same thing waiting on them, without fail: homemade macaroni and cheese, some applesauce or apple crisp, and smoked sausages.  It became our annual Halloween fare. The macaroni was an autumn favorite of my mother’s, not the kind in a creamy orange-colored sauce, but the old fashioned kind that has toasted, buttery, bread crumbs and long melted strands of Colby cheese pulling away from the pan.  It was interesting to see so many new characters sit down to my table for dinner.  However, seeing as how I let my children put their costumes on early, I suppose I really did issue the invitation for a Civil War Colonel and a colonial lady to join us.

Being in a rural community, homes were never close enough for my children to Trick-or-Treat locally.  As a child in the same position, my mother used to drive my siblings and me to various farmhouses, where little old ladies passed out caramel apples and homemade popcorn balls, but after the old crowd died off, so were the homes that gave out sweets, and my own children had to go to either the nearest village to us, or my husband’s home village not far off.  Both villages were safe and festive.  With friends, family, and the kids’ teachers there passing out candy, I never had to worry about their safety.  The villages were small with many old homes that were kept tidy and dressed full of candle-lit pumpkins and fodder shocks.  My children got used to one old house that routinely had a man hiding in a pile of leaves to scare the Trick-or-Treaters.  As they walked around, they were able to see their schoolmates gathering candy, and throughout the chilly night, we could hear a random scream or two as a new batch of children walked up to the pile of leaves.  I kept a wary eye on the bags, to make sure they had plenty of treats, but as soon as the bags began looking full, I would nudge them back to the car.  They always wanted to keep going.  As soon as we got home, though, they would sit down with their haul in front of the TV and watch old favorites, like the Charlie Brown Halloween special my husband and I grew up with as kids, and Disney’s Sleepy Hollow, Lonesome Ghosts, and Trick-or-Treat.  When the night was over, we would all head outside to see the candles inside the jack-o-lanterns we had carved earlier in the month, and by morning, like Ichabod Crane, the candles would be gone, and all that would be left were the pumpkin shells.

As the children got older, and we no longer visited the local village for Trick-or-Treat, we began moving our Halloween meal to a campfire outdoors, where we still got to feel the evening chill the kids were used to, and the hotdogs and sausages got that extra good smoky flavor that only comes from an open flame.  Starting the fire early in the evening, when the sun is still high in the sky, we begin carving our jack-o-lanterns and taste the usual fare.  The dogs even get their own jack-o-lanterns.  My husband is always looking for some sort of extreme carving, and my son always ends up with a pumpkin that looks like a modern surrealist carved it, but my daughter and I keep things traditional and light hearted.  You can always tell whose pumpkin belongs to whom.

In place of candy, I now make homemade popcorn balls, caramel apples, and pumpkin cookies covered in sweet cream cheese icing.  As the evening wears on, we watch as the stars shine in the night sky, an autumn moon usually rises over the churchyard, and a warm autumn fog always seems to creep across the bridge below us in the valley.  One year, while the kids were still in the middle of waiting for their latest Harry Potter books to be released, we had an epidemic of toads and snakes wriggling across the road, and an owl in an old tree above us waiting for an easy dinner.  I am still not sure what caused such a mass exodus, but it all set the stage for a festive Halloween spent together as adults as well as children.  Now, after we retire inside, the kids still watch their old favorites, and we all still go out to see our jack-o-lanterns shining, laughing at the shapes they make when lit in the dark, and though there is no longer any candy, costumes, or spooky surprises, we feel none the less for having enjoyed this earthy autumn holiday together.