This Halloween was my first as a resident of the city of Conway, and I'm not gonna lie — I was a little disappointed in the lack of festivity.
I was so excited when I set out on foot in old Conway with Spiderman and a black cat, thinking there'd surely be an abudance of welcoming porch lights.
A step or two away from my front door and I was quickly proven wrong, however, as we walked up and down College and side streets and saw only a handful of lights on outside of homes, one here, one there — only one or two incidences of two in a row. And we only crossed paths with other trick-or-treaters on a couple of occasions, too. We made it back around to our house fairly quickly and took to the car to pursue treats instead. (The upside of the lack of trick-or-treaters is that that those handing out candy were extremely generous. My kids were not deprived.)
Maybe we'd have had better luck inside of the subdivisions of West Conway, but I had my heart set on an old Conway Halloween.
I've been in love with the homes in Conway's historic district since I was a child. All of my life, I wanted to live there. When I was little, my family would load up in the car and drive from Greenbrier to Conway to drive around and look at the Christmas lights. For the past several years that I have taken my own children to do the same, I've noticed a steady decline in the amount of Christmas decor in neighborhoods where lights and displays used to be plentiful. And now in Halloween participants.
What gives? Last night I found myself pondering a couple of points, the first and most hopeful that those who used to put up elaborate displays and made it a point to participate in holidays are simply growing older and can no longer do the things they used to do. (Does this indiciate that my generation is too busy for tradition? How sad.) Another point, that people are afraid to open their doors to strangers. Grim, but plausible.
Navigating the sidewalks last night, I tried to imagine what Halloween may have been like fifty years ago. I would just about bet there were kids, pumpkins and welcoming porch lights everywhere. Halloween parties, even. And that realization; the realization of the world in which we live, and how busy and different times are, just made me sad for my own children.
No matter how busy I get, I will always, always slow down for holiday tradition.
Highlights of Halloween 2012? Spotting Santa in a Prius at the corner of College and Davis Streets and Finger Puppet Satan, retrieved from the bag of my 3-year-old and used in post-trick-or-treating battle royale against Cinderella.
Comments (10)
Add commentWell...
...most folks in Conway now take advantage of the organized events (Trunk-or-Treat, etc.).
We finally stopped buying Halloween candy after going 4 or 5 years in a row without a single trick-or-treater (and we lived in a well traveled neighborhood at the time).
It is my understanding
It is my understanding everyone goes to just a few neighborhoods in west Conway. The candy's better there according to my niece and nephew.
I don't really understand Trunk or Treating. Why?
Trunk or Treating
If you have a really small child, trunk or treating is ideal. Their little legs don't have to walk as far and it's safer than getting out onto residential streets, and some homeowners have dogs that might frighten small kids.
Other than that, I like the door-to-door myself, mostly to see the decorations.
On the homeowner's side, it seems most door-to-door kids nowadays are now barely-costumed teenagers with pillowcases and backpacks looking to score some free candy.
You should have just come
You should have just come visited us and parked in our drive. My neighborhood is apparently one of those Halloween destinations, judging by last night's traffic and the year before. The cars were lined up down the street on both entrances, from Tyler to Salem.
It was exactly as you pictured in your mind - decorations everywhere, people out on their porches dressed for the occasion welcoming everyone with candy and treats. I stood at the top of our 'hill' (more of a slight incline) at the end of the road and looked down to see families everywhere, walking from home to home.
We took our 18-month-old to a few of our neighbor's homes in the cul-de-sac to say hi and show off his costume. He enjoyed it, but after about 45 minutes and only four homes visited it was apparent the entire neighborhood was not going to be in the plans.
Talking with neighbors it seems our subdivision has always been like that. I hope it remains that way as he grows older, so we don't have to resort to trunk-or-treating.
the irony of trick-or-treat..
is that the lines of cars spent more on gas than the candy would have cost.
Fifty Years Ago
Fifty years ago, Halloween was a big deal. Most children went Trick or Treating, we wore costumes to school that day, planning our costumes, most of which were homemade, took at least a month, and a lot of the treats were homemade. One of the things we did back then that I enjoyed the most once I got into high school was that my FTA group (Future Teachers of America) went Trick or Treating for UNICEF. We carried official cans with orange labels on them and collected loose change that was contributed to the UNICEF Children's Fund to feed hungry children around the world.
Also
All these people knew each other. You knew your neighbors and their children and they knew you too.
My way of thinking is why do I want to buy and hand out candy to a bunch of people I don't know or that even know who I am.
Thought Provoking.
Megan, you bring up some thought provoking points. Unfortunately, most of those thoughts turn depressing in short order. It would appear that the dedication to tradition is quickly falling by the wayside. I think this could be due to a number of contributing factors: apathy, concern about displaying your beliefs in public - for fear of being ridiculed instantaneously on the internet, breakdown of the traditional family - resulting in less concern for festivities, security concerns, a young generation less eager to carry on old traditions, and the list could continue.
It is a shame, really. Festive holidays used to bring communities together and get neighbors involved with each other. Our society has changed a lot and it is not just apparent in the lack of holiday traditions. Even 30 years ago, the excitement for Halloween was huge and we loved going door to door on Bruce Street and College Ave. The number of friends and neighbors on the street for the evening was tremendous - in fact, there would always be the one or two neighbors that were not involved, and they were the ones we made up scary stories about. The exact opposite is true today.
Never fear though: In short order you will be able to have your children go trick or treating on their Wii console or Xbox. I'm sure Apple is working on an ap as well. Electronic replacements for human interaction and the true building of organic emotion surrounding holidays (they will prescribe a pill for the latter).
and..
I haven't seen it as much here, but where I lived before this there were a lot of Christians that were saying Halloween was evil and wouldn't let their children participate. Does that happen much here, but people just don't talk about it? It was in the paper and stuff where I was at before. They didn't want thier kids participating in Halloween at school or anything so it caused a bit of an uproar in the community at the time.
Sad
Last night when my 7-year-old was asked if he knew what Halloween was, he replied, "Yes, it's celebrating hell." Had to straighten him out real quick, but it made my heart a little sad. I have no idea where he would have heard such a thing.