Mischief or mayhem?

As my children count down the days to Halloween, I think of the many different things my brother and I, along with our neighbors, would do as children on Halloweens past. Of all of the Halloweens I spent out and about, the one I remember the most fondly is the one spent in a nursing home with several cousins and neighbors.

We had all made our own costumes. I was a princess and I wore my grandmother's pink wedding dress with butterfly sleeves. I had a tiara, a starry wand and a pink mask with a silver sparkle border. My brother was dressed as a bat and one of our other companions as a hobo. We loaded into the back of a station wagon and went off to serve cinnamon donuts and warm apple cider. None of the residents' grandchildren showed up to show off their costumes or look for a "treat" from the nurses. I was proud that my friends and I had the chance to make these people happy.

Tricks and treats are what make up Halloween. Parents and children spend hours carving jack-o-lanterns. making candy apples and getting costumes ready, some homemade and others store bought. Some kids pick cute costumes and others choose something scary. We head out on the streets. The little kids run up and down the street in their costumes, climbing doorstep after doorstep to collect their treats and then trading with their friends. The night is often windy and cool, and dark early as daylight savings time kicks in, adding to the spooky carnival atmosphere. It's a special evening when parents make the time to spend with their children.

Halloween is not just for the under ten group. The big kids get their chance later in the evening to play the tricks.

When I was growing up, the tricks were part of what the older kids called "war." As my brother and I got older, we began to sneak out and participate. We were out there to have fun. The innocent "fun" in the war was to advance on the other team and pelt them with rotten produce and eggs, rotten apples found on the street, or to get someone with shaving cream on the sneak attack. By evening's end, the huge maple at the end of the street would be covered in toilet paper.

Plans for Halloween war would be made for weeks in advance, but we respected people's property and saw no humor in destroying or breaking things. We feared the punishment when-not if-we got caught. Fun was the key word.

In this day and age, Halloween tricks have escalated to a point that reaches vandalism. The fun is gone now, replaced by violence and property destruction. Today's teen population seems to have no fear. Instead, it is the adults who fear the pranking about to happen on Halloween.

The truth is, this type of destruction occurs at all times of the year. Take, as an example, the destruction of the signboard on the Delaware Valley campus last homecoming weekend, or the theft of "Woody," the wooden bear stolen from the Cochecton Preservation Society.

We seem to make a bigger deal of pranking when it is tied to a holiday as such. Some faiths hold that Halloween is the devil's holiday, and that the big red guy with the horns is behind all of the mischief that occurs. But in my opinion, it is a teen society that fears nothing that causes the problems. It is sad that town governments need to reschedule public meetings because they don't want to chance an elderly person being attacked.

Halloween is a chance to practice the lost art of quality time and having fun. Families can go out together, have fun dressing up and seeing their neighbors. Why, as a society, can we not go back to the days of dressing up and visiting the elderly? A child's time is better spent learning from their elders, not practicing the art of destruction.

Sandra Deckelman, Production Assistant