Halloween's a-comin'

It’s coming up in only a couple of weeks – one of every kids most favorite days - Halloween. I’m sure that it’s as much of an exciting time today as it was when I was growing up. There was nothing that caused us such anticipated joy and excitement as trick-or-treating on Halloween.

When I tried to figure out why it was such a big deal, I think it’s because we realized that WE were in control of our destiny! All that was required was that we spend a little bit of time planning and we could make an incredible haul. I remember sitting down with my friends and trying to draw a map of the neighborhood, and even the adjacent neighborhoods… we had big plans to hit as many house as we possibly could.

There were a few places we had to make sure to hit, since we knew from previous years that there were good treats to be had there – one house even used to give away full-size candy bars! We had to work fast, but we also had to maximize our time out in the streets. We would negotiate with our moms as to how soon we could start, and how late we could stay out. The older we got, the longer we got to be collecting free candy. It was great!

When we were really young, we had plenty of fun fancy costumes (remember that face-mask smell?) and were the pride of our moms as we went door to door and received many an “Awww, aren’t you cute! Who are you tonight?” By the time we reached our tweens and early teens, it was just a matter of putting on some ragged clothes, scribbling a beard on your face with mom’s or your sister’s mascara, and “ta-dah” you were a bum! Grab the biggest pillowcase you could find and make for the road, there was candy to haul in tonight!

We had fun! There wasn’t the fear unknown people, or harm from candy that may have been tampered with that kids might be faced with today. It was basically a good, clean, fun type of experience and one that brings back plenty of pleasant memories still today.

Do you have some favorite memories or stories from your youth as a trick-or-treater?

Lunch at School continued...

So – I talked about the great lunch pails I took to school growing up. Today I thought I’d expound on a few similar memories.

How many of you remember getting milk in glass bottles at school? Before the nice little wax-cardboard ones we're all so used to now, we had our milk in glass bottles with little sealed paper caps. This was in early grade school, so it would’ve actually been in the mid to late ‘60s. Seems like hardly a week went by when someone didn’t drop and break one in the cafeteria causing quite the stir. And of course there was only one “variety” – milk! (I would guess it was what we all call “whole milk” now). We didn’t have any other options!


I also remembered what I consider now to have been the ultimate in “pinching pennies”. My mom would make lunches for us 4 kids, dad, and the occasional kid or relative that may have had an extended stay at our house. We were required to bring our lunch sacks (read “small, brown, paper bags”) home every day and make each one last for the whole week! As if that wasn’t bad enough, we also had to save our baggies if they weren’t messy. While the economics of this made sense, given our middle-class status and the sheer number we would’ve gone through, it always presented the challenge of avoiding being seen by classmates as I neatly folded my bag (with clean baggies inside) and tried to slip it into my back pocket undetected. Now - of course – my mom would be heralded as a forward-thinker, eco-green proponent, and role models for families everywhere… but back then – it was “Aww, mom!?!”, and “the OTHER kids don’t have to save their lunch sacks!”. Kudos to mom for sticking to her guns.

One last thing – We only got to buy it like 4 times a month, but the best lunches we ever got to buy at school? Pizza! Hot, square and loaded with great toppings!

No excuse

I got really busy.
I published a book.
Christmas came...
My other responsibilities piled up.
I kinda forgot about it...

All of this isn't a good excuse, I know, but I am finally back and ready to blog all things '70s. Since releasing my book, I've had a lot of positive reviews and I've learned a lot about the world of publishing. Of course my book is all about growing up in the '70s. Many people have shared with me so many cool things about their experiences growing up. I'll try to share on one or two specific memories per post and see how that works out, ok?

The local candy store. I grew up in a suburb north of Seattle and we had a few little stores in the area, but none had the same compelling attraction as Godfrey’s. Mom took any of our appliances there to have them fixed when they went on the fritz - apparently he was quite the tinkerer/handyman, but my siblings and I loved going there because he had the best, oddest, couldn't-find-at-the-local-7-11 candy.


Of course we walked there. It was only 5 or 6 blocks away - although since we lived above the Puget Sound, it was all downhill there and all uphill home. We must've been quite the site - Mom lugging some sort of broken appliance in a shopping bag, and all of us kids running along beside her. My brother and I would be especially excited and would most likely be daydreaming about all the goodies that we'd spend our whole 25 cents on.

As we walked in, Mom would greet Mr. Godfrey and begin to explain her latest appliance woe, but us kids would totally zone them out and begin the arduous task of scanning the endless bins of penny candy in an effort to begin to decide which of the sweet treasures we would actually buy. There were candy cigarettes, atom bombs pixies, rock candy strings, candy sticks (root beer was the BEST), smarties, pixy sticks - you know - a tube of flavored sugar, Necco wafers, laffy taffy, sweet tarts, little tootsie rolls, caramels, slo pokes, lemon drops, root beer barrels, jawbreakers, candy necklaces, licorices, gummy bears, etc. etc. etc.

Mom always let us buy our allotted amount, but we had to consume in moderation... so picking what to eat first and what to save for last was sometimes just as difficult as figuring out what to buy.

I realize that this was such a simple pleasure compared to what it takes to appease kids today. It was a good walk in the fresh air; it was spending time with the family; a chance to watch someone who was a good fix-it guy and store owner working and relating with the local neighbors; a lesson in decision making (all those candy choices); an opportunity to learn about commerce – even on a very small scale – as it related directly to my pocket; and a great lot of fun and something to look forward to, especially for a little kid.

What types of penny candy do you remember when you grew up? Did you have a little local store like me? I’d love to hear your stories.