One of my fondest memories is going to Halloween parties as a kid. They were kid friendly ones that my grandmother's work did for the kids. They were fun with treats like popcorn hands and decorated treats, games with prizes from tossing a 'spider' into a bucket, wrapping a person into a mummy, classic Halloween music like Thriller and Monster Mash and even a haunted maze one year. 

There also was the haunted hay rides that happened throughout October just outside my hometown. I wasn't really bothered by the actors since they didn't really get up by the tractor wagon, nor did they chase us. The big thing was the huge reaper they had move around and talk in a booming voice. I had to fake scream since I found it more cool than scary. After that I went into the bounce house they had outside.

Now we get into the best part of Halloween as a kid which was the Halloween events at school. I remember coming into school in costume and having the day off of school work to have fun. Activities depended on the teachers. Some of the games were educational such as writing a ghost story, putting legs on spiders and a few others. There were costume contests for each class and the gym turned into a haunted house of sorts. We would watch Halloween specials and make crafts like paper plate spiders, ghosts from lollipops, and a few others. For lunch, as far as I recall, they would theme the menu for Halloween... though it depended on what lunch was, and we would get a big cookie with lunch. If they didn't theme the menu, a teacher would throw a pizza party. We would also have the costume parade and classroom trick or treating. 

After school I used to hang out with my friends as we organized our route for our trick or treat run to know what houses had the best candy or something worth getting. There were always five houses that had full size candy bars on my street.

When I got older we went to the rich neighborhoods for a full haul of big bars and coupons for McDonald's and Wendy's which was always nice. I remember one year a house gave us these little bibles shaped like pumpkins and another with toothbrushes. After we were out of sight of the owners we sneaked them into other kids treat pails to get rid of them. We used to take short cuts through the woods at times to cover more houses and get more candy. After trick or treating we would go over to one of my friend's houses or mine and go through the candy and trade and give what we didn't like. I personally went after the fruit rolls, Dots, Skittles and anything fruity flavored or chocolate bars like Crunch and Hershey's. 

As a kid, I used to recycle costumes. My mainstays were vampire, ninja and reaper for years. I soon got into making my own costumes as I got older and was able to go as characters from other mediums like TV, movies and games. Costume making was and still is a fun part of Halloween and I also do it for other events to this day. So for Halloween I certainly don't lack in costumes to wear.

With that I bring this trip to memory lane to an end. I hope you all enjoyed this little journey and stay tuned, another journey will soon be around the corner. I'm bringing Turkey next time. But until then Live Life and Live Nostalgic.