Back When Halloween Was a Full-Contact Sport
With Halloween almost here, a look back to a time us 70’s kids will remember.
Back then, Halloween wasn’t a “holiday,” it was a full-contact sport. Costumes came in a cardboard box: a brittle plastic mask with two nose holes the size of pinheads, and a vinyl suit that could burst into flames if you got too close to a lit jack-o-lantern. Seeing was a luxury and breathing was optional.
Half the neighborhood dressed as Planet of the Apes or the Six-Million-Dollar Man because that’s all Kmart had left. Your plastic mask was held on by a single elastic string that snapped by house #3, so you spent the rest of the night half-masked and sweaty like a mini Phantom of the Opera.
You and your buds hit the streets in a sugar-seeking mob armed with pillowcases, none of those cute pumpkin buckets that hold three fun-size bars and a juice box. We didn’t stop until our bags were heavy enough to sprain a wrist while walloping an unsuspecting foe.
Parents didn’t have safety briefings, tactical maps, track us with GPS or run mission control from their SUV. They just let us loose and hoped for the best. No cell phones, reflective gear, glow sticks, or flashlights required.
We’d disappear for 6 hours, covering 3 zip codes. There were no nut-free, dye-free, gluten-free options. If someone handed you a popcorn ball, you took it. If it was an apple, you plotted revenge. And if you scored a full-size candy bar, you ruled the night.
Eventually we stumbled home with 15 pounds of sugar, high on Pixy Stix and freedom.
Those were the days 🎃
Steve
