Halloween Stories (this was prompted by someone asking “What is too old to trick or treat?”
I trick or treated until I was 17. Some background is probably important here.
When I was much younger some much older girls from our nearby high school stole my brother's bag of candy and tried taking mine, but because my costume, mine was wrapped around my waist (I was a wizard that year and was super proud of my homemade magic bag I made from a potato sack), so as I held on, she knocked me down and drug me several feet before dropping me. I thought me and my brother were being abducted as this was the beginning of the mIlk carton kid era. Someone heard us screaming...and they ran. My brother chased them up to a fence, which they jumped over, along with his bag of candy...and they were gone. I was 9. He was 11. We were both bleeding and traumatized. We ran home terrified and in tears. The police came. They took statements from us and an ambulance came and looked us over for injuries, but nothing ever came of it. I offered to share my candy, but my brother was clearly so upset he didn't want anything. He wanted the experience to be over and even candy was a painful reminder.
My brother never went trick or treating again.
My younger sister started the following year, so I went with her and my mom. And the next year, and the next. And the next. I knew I was 'too old' that last year as more than one person commented on my height. "Aren't you a little 'old' to be trick or treating?" I kept going, mostly because I wanted to make sure nothing happened to my sister and my mother, but also, dressing up is fun, I loved horror movies and felt like it was something I took joy in. Deep down however, I hoped I would see someone trying to do to someone else what those girls had done to my brother. I wanted revenge.
That last year I accidentally got my chance. We were on our way home when across the street some kid jumped out of the bushes and grabbed a boy's bag and bolted. I was a shy kid, and I was (and still am) terrified of physical confrontation, but something in my lizard brain snapped and the next thing I knew we were on the ground and I was on top of him. My mother rushed over to us and recognised the kid as the son of one of our neighbors. She grabbed this kid by the hair (this was the 1980s when you could still actually discipline other peoples children without going to jail) and went up to some random house and banged on the door until someone answered. She told them to call the cops.
That kid he pushed down? He broke his arm. This was the suburbs so everyone knew everyone else. His parents pressed charges, and the kid (he was 15) left in a cop car. If I hadn't been there that night, it would have been another poor kid with scarred memories and a broken arm and NO candy on top of it all.
The best part of this story is the end. I got to hand that little boy back his bag of candy as he sat in the back of the ambulance in tears. I gave him some of my candy because I remember what it must have felt like. They for the hospital and everyone eventually calmed down and we went home. That was the last year I went trick or treating.
Fast forward to roughly 30 years later. I am helping a friend with her daughters wedding planning. The couple met because she was a physiotherapist and he was recuperating after surgery and they hit if off. I went to shake his hand on the day, and he offered the other hand so we switched. He jokingly said "I have to wait a couple more months until this fully heals before I can shake hands like I used to." and we talked about his 'old injury' that needed to be repaired. Then he said "Yeah, I was pushed down while trick or treating when I was a kid and it healed funny.
"So I said jokingly "you didn't grow up in Fremont, did you?" and sure enough....it was him! Because his fiancee had met him around this surgical correction, she knew of the history. When I came up to their table to toast with them the bride said "THIS is the guy who gave you your candy back?!" We hugged like old friends and had the BEST time at their wedding, and Mom even got to share the story during her toast.
Life is funny but it would be missing something if it wasn't also a little spooky.
*We are old forever and young once. If you aren't hurting anyone, find joy, dress up, play, and don't let other people stop you.
