Halloween

Halloween(-ōˈēn,ˌhaləˈwēn,ˌhälə-)

by 王渊源John

I have a lot of fun memories of Halloween from my childhood. When I was a little kid, our neighborhood would often arrange(əˈrānj) a “hay(hā) ride(rīd)”. One of our neighbors would fill a trailer(ˈtrālər) with hay and pull it along with his tractor(ˈtraktər). The neighborhood kids would sit in the trailer and ride along.

Of course, many of my Halloween memories involve trick(trik)-or-treating(trēt). We would knock on our neighbor’s door and say “trick or treat!?”, and they would give us candy(ˈkandē). Supposedly(səˈpōzədlē) the idea is that if they don’t give you a “treat”, you would play a “trick” on them, but the people whose doors I knocked on always had candy, so I never had to think up a trick. The most common tricks that kids talked about, though, were rubbing(ˈrəbiNG) soap(sōp) on a house’s windows, throwing eggs at a house, and covering a house in toilet(ˈtoilit) paper. To be honest, even if someone hadn’t given me candy, I don’t think I would have been interested in playing a trick.

Along with procuring(prō-,prəˈkyo͝or) the candy, I also have memories of a belly(ˈbelē) full of candy in the days following Halloween. My parents didn’t usually have candy in the house, so we would gorge(gôrj) ourselves following halloween. Usually, after finishing my halloween candy, I didn’t want to eat candy again for a long time!

One Halloween, a neighbor invited(inˈvīt) me to go trick-or-treating with him and his family in another neighborhood. I never figured out what costume(ˈkäsˌt(y)o͞om) I wanted to wear, so I called at the last minute to cancel. A few minutes later, my friend’s mom called back to say that my friend was really disappointed, and kind of upset, that I had cancelled at the last minute, leaving him with no one to trick-or-treat with! She said that they had an extra costume, and that I was welcome to use it.

So that Halloween I went as Cookie Monster, and we had a great time.

My wife will tell you that this story shows how I have never stopped putting things off until the last minute, but it also reminds me that Halloween isn’t about having the perfect costume or planning the perfect event; it’s about having fun with friends and family.

Good Morning and Happy Halloween!