Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Hallowe'en Memories and Family History

Randy Seaver from Genea-Musing has an assignment today to discuss our memories of Halloween. I don’t have any pictures of me dressed in Halloween costumes and I don’t remember many costumes, but once I was a ghost made from a sheet.

I don’t remember Trick or Treating before we moved to Walnut Creek in 1963. In Walnut Creek, we lived on a quiet country road with about a dozen houses. We would go to these houses first, and then our parents would drive us over to the next block or to another neighborhood where there were more houses.

I made the wizard costume on the right.

Our favorite house on our block to visit was Mrs. Peterson’s. She had freshly baked cookies and homemade fudge. These were delicious treats. She always oohed and ahed about our costumes.  Mr. Gardner lived across from her and his treats for us were usually an apple from his tree and boxes of raisins. At the time we didn’t appreciate the “healthy” treats.

I remember when kids stopped Trick or Treating by the time they got to the 6th or 7th grade. I went out longer because I took my younger sisters, though I didn’t dress up. My brothers went out on their own with pillow cases and would returned with them filled! We had sweet treats for weeks.

Check out the mysterious see-through ghost in
this shot of a party at my parent's house.

I remember my daughter’s years of Trick or Treating. I made many of their costumes and sometimes they picked out ones from the Spirit store. When they came home from Trick or Treating, they would sort out all of their candy and some trading would happen. 

Also as an adult, my parents had Halloween parties where we all dressed up and had pumpkin carving contests. It was a lot of fun.

Copyright © 2015 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.