Halloween Now More Restrictive, By Necessity

As Halloween fast approaches, I keep remembering how it used to be, when I was a kid. Out of necessity, that has gone by the wayside. We live in a much creepier and less safe society. And, I suppose every generation can legitimately make that claim. But, those were the days. When I was young, the kids on my street would all ban together with wagons and lots of big sacks and we'd head out. And we didn't just stick to the two blocks that made up our neighborhood. Back then, we'd travel four or five blocks away from home and simply load up. It's funny, I only seem to remember two Halloween costumes from my childhood--the first and the last. And, actually the the first one I remember may not have been my first one. I was five years old and dressed as a Hot Wheels racecar driver. My dad was taking us around. It was raining. The plastic window through which I was supposed to see got all fogged up. I was uncomfortable. But it was still fun. I was 12 the last time I went trick-or-treating. I dressed as the Hulk. I wanted to go barefoot because it was actually warm for October 31st. But Mom wouldn't let me. But we still made those long treks around multiple neighborhoods. Nowadays, we all have so many questions surrounding Halloween that we even get questions about what day it's observed. For the record, trick-or-treating will actually happen on Monday, October 31st. I've also heard that there's a 5:30-7:30 time frame, but it was from an online forum. Regardless, kids don't stay out nearly as late as we used to. And, that's a good thing. The world's just a lot more dangerous. There are too many predators out there. Limits need to be imposed. Luckily, there are still plenty of fun activities set up for the kids. I mean, come on, it's Halloween. It still has to be fun.