In honor of Halloween, I will share this childhood memory.
This might make you scratch your head and say out loud, "What the hell?" It is an OK reaction because I still wonder about this one.
Growing up as pastor's daughters we did not celebrate Halloween. I repeat, WE.DID.NOT.CELEBRATE.HALLOWEEN.
It was the devil's day. Plain and simple.
As little children you are not thinking about it being an evil day. You are thinking that it is a glorious day because you get free candy. What's better than free candy? Nothing! Also, it was sucky to be the only child in your class who didn't have a HUGE bag of candy sitting at her desk. So sad.
Any who, when I was 10 years old Halloween fell on a Sunday. Me, my 2 younger sisters and 16 other children stayed after church for our Christmas play rehearsals.
Instead of us being the good kids we should have been, we decided it was a great opportunity to trick-or-treat. We waited for all of our parents to leave and when we were suppose to be eating our lunch we were all getting our "costumes" ready.
I was already in a frilly dress so I decided I was going to be a princess. My dress was pink so no one was going to argue. But I wanted my face to look like "Halloween" so I drew whiskers on my cheeks with a magic marker. (WTH?! I wish I had a picture) I was a cat princess. Perfect.
All the other kids were getting their "costumes" together. We were all excited!
We left the church without telling our director that we were leaving. We knew that she wouldn't let us go so we didn't say a word.
Me and 16 other kids stopped at every store possible. Our plastic bags being filled with candy at each stop. Yes, plastic bags. Unfortunately, we didn't have one of these for the occasion:
I guess the time flies when you are trick-or-treating with 16 others.
It is amazing what little children do not realize. How in the world did we think that our director was not going to notice that 17 children had disappeared? She was freaking out! She had no idea where we were so she called our parents. All of our parents.
Imagine coming back to church all excited (mouth full of candy) and seeing the look of crazy on your parent's face. I have never been so nervous in my life. My parents were livid. Here I was in this frilly pink dress for church, my face looking like a cat and holding the huge culprit of what I had done.
Our bags of candy was taken from us and burned. Yes, burned. Evil spirits live in candy too, you know. They were not taking chances. Halloween is the devil's day.
I went to school the next day empty handed and stared with much envy at my classmates who had huge bags of candy on their desk. Sigh.
Let's just say that I never trick-or-treated again in my life.
This might make you scratch your head and say out loud, "What the hell?" It is an OK reaction because I still wonder about this one.
Growing up as pastor's daughters we did not celebrate Halloween. I repeat, WE.DID.NOT.CELEBRATE.HALLOWEEN.
It was the devil's day. Plain and simple.
As little children you are not thinking about it being an evil day. You are thinking that it is a glorious day because you get free candy. What's better than free candy? Nothing! Also, it was sucky to be the only child in your class who didn't have a HUGE bag of candy sitting at her desk. So sad.
Any who, when I was 10 years old Halloween fell on a Sunday. Me, my 2 younger sisters and 16 other children stayed after church for our Christmas play rehearsals.
Instead of us being the good kids we should have been, we decided it was a great opportunity to trick-or-treat. We waited for all of our parents to leave and when we were suppose to be eating our lunch we were all getting our "costumes" ready.
I was already in a frilly dress so I decided I was going to be a princess. My dress was pink so no one was going to argue. But I wanted my face to look like "Halloween" so I drew whiskers on my cheeks with a magic marker. (WTH?! I wish I had a picture) I was a cat princess. Perfect.
All the other kids were getting their "costumes" together. We were all excited!
We left the church without telling our director that we were leaving. We knew that she wouldn't let us go so we didn't say a word.
Me and 16 other kids stopped at every store possible. Our plastic bags being filled with candy at each stop. Yes, plastic bags. Unfortunately, we didn't have one of these for the occasion:
I guess the time flies when you are trick-or-treating with 16 others.
It is amazing what little children do not realize. How in the world did we think that our director was not going to notice that 17 children had disappeared? She was freaking out! She had no idea where we were so she called our parents. All of our parents.
Imagine coming back to church all excited (mouth full of candy) and seeing the look of crazy on your parent's face. I have never been so nervous in my life. My parents were livid. Here I was in this frilly pink dress for church, my face looking like a cat and holding the huge culprit of what I had done.
Our bags of candy was taken from us and burned. Yes, burned. Evil spirits live in candy too, you know. They were not taking chances. Halloween is the devil's day.
I went to school the next day empty handed and stared with much envy at my classmates who had huge bags of candy on their desk. Sigh.
Let's just say that I never trick-or-treated again in my life.
Awe, this story is sad, yet funny and cute at the same time. I tricker treated as a kid but never got THAT into it. Whatev...I'm not much into candy.
ReplyDeleteGo Rangers! And I thought I LIKED YOU! ugh.
I'm new to your blog. Love your trick or treat story. :)
ReplyDeleteAwww mannn..that sucks :( I love Halloween! We rent my sister-in-laws kids every year just so we can score free candy! lol
ReplyDeleteThat's so sad, Wow that's really extreme burning candy. I bet it smelled really great though!
ReplyDeleteWe had ''Harvest Festivals'' at church, with games and dressing up as Bible characters like wearing a sheet with rope. lol I didn't trick or treat till 19. I love to dress up and invite friends over for party/movie night now.
yeah ... i hate this story. really sad.
ReplyDelete@Nicci: i think it was extreme too. :( this still makes me sad.
ow... that sucks! we don't celebrate halloween in indonesia so i have no trick-n-treat experience.
ReplyDeleteAww, what a sad story. I love how brave you all were and how genuine your desire to go trick or treating was.
ReplyDeleteLove how daring you guys were although I bet they were worried about you! I have mixed feelings about Halloween too but try to enjoy it :)
ReplyDeleteI know I shouldn't laugh! But I'm cracking up. Kids are too much. How in the world 17 kids thought they could disappear for umpteen hours, come back with breath smelling like candy and get away with their shenanigans is hilarious! But I have a few stories like this of my own. Maybe that's why I laugh - I'm laughing with you and not at you. lol
ReplyDeletethis might be the best halloween story i've ever heard. I too, was not allowed to go trick-or-treating. But my mom did pass out candy to the kids who "didn't know better". So I got to stay at home and give candy to other kids. So sad.
ReplyDeleteohh also I'm sorry that this is a sad memory...(but I TOTALLY relate to this aspect of your childhood).
ReplyDeleteMy church always had Hallelujah Night on Trick or Treat night. I was the bad the little church kid and my mom allowed me to go trick or treating with my neighborhood friends.
ReplyDeleteI always saw Halloween as a fun holiday. From the research that I found that Halloween was not an evil day it was a holiday that we people dressed up to hide from spirits who came to visit, not cause harm, on Halloween. I think that Halloween is what you make it not it does not have to be evil or dark.
Oh Faith- I'm ready to come up there and take you out trick or treating right now. It *needs* to be done at least once in a lifetime (shhh... mom and dad don't have to know) :)
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry your candy was burned, but I bet you were just the sweetest little cat-princess in the entire neighborhood!!
Your story is cute and sad. I know that is something my children would do. I can totally see it in my head right now!!!
ReplyDeleteExactly as Dana said about the tradition of Halloween!! Check out wiki! I grew up in a religious home, but our parents never wanted us to feel left out. However, Halloween has nothing to do with the devil anyway. Maybe over the years, the devil has been more glamorized this time of year, which is sad. But, I don't feel so guilty dressing up the lil ones;) As far as I see it, trick-or treat is when I get 'candy taxes' after all the hard work hehe. The load up on candy, I ration it off to them and I get all the good stuff hehe. Ok, I am too much of a sucker for that ;)
LOL, I do get you because the experience is very similar. I never celebrated Halloween because I lived in Italy but NO, you don't celebrate what it is supposed to celebrate evil like going to clubs :(.
ReplyDeleteI love reading your 'back in the day' posts. It will be great if you could make it as a link up so we can all share story of our past :), what do you think about the idea!
aww... I want to come over and take your trick or treating! That's such a sad, but a little funny...story. I can just picture all of you walking down the street back to the church and all your parents standing there wondering where the costumes came from and how you managed to sneak away. :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting story -- I never thought of halloween as the devil's day -- it was free candy day at our house lol! The candy burning DOES seem a little extreme. You guys sounded like a few trouble makers! =)
ReplyDeleteoh my goodness!! such an adorable story!!
ReplyDeleteSo hilarious. I love it. The burning the candy part is so freaking funny. I'm sorry. I'm just trying to picture how they did it. Did they set a bonfire? Burn it on the church lawn? I'm so curious. LOL! BTW how long did it take you to get the cat whiskers off?
ReplyDeletegirl you should have stashed some of that candy in your frilly dress :)...you have the best stories, I love it!
ReplyDeleteFunny story and I can relate. I'm wondering 2 things, how old you were and how you feel about halloween now. :)
ReplyDeleteYou are too funny, and by the sound of it, you've always been funny! I'm sure your parents got a bit of chuckle out of your marked face, but their rules were the rules to abide by.
ReplyDeleteI don't celebrate Halloween either, so I understand. I would love to get dressed up for something though!
oh my word, funny story. just catching up on your blog. what part of the city did you grow up in? i see all the kids going to stores on halloween and its so cute. very different store trick or treating for me!
ReplyDelete