Children of the Corn

This time of year evokes lots of fun childhood memories. I love this time of year for the weather (although we could do without the SNOW flurries right now), football and especially Halloween. I am not much into the costumes for myself, but I love seeing what everyone else picks - I think that it says a lot about a person knowing what they were as a child. It was always the best Room Party at school since you got to dress up in elementary school and walk through all of the classrooms then the cafeteria where all of the parents came in to see the costumes. Oh, the school Halloween Parade! I remember vividly rounding the corner of that cafeteria and looking for my mom and dad!

I loved Trick-or-Treating in our neighborhood. All of the neighbors had "their treats" that they were known for. Anne with her gum, the neighbor who gave the full sized candy bars, the lady who gave out sucky apples and even one year some guy giving out little baggies of CHANGE! We still go over and trick or treat at my parents house, and my dad puts on the scary music loudly to try to scare the neighbor kids... even though I think all he does is annoy my mom. We STILL go to all of the neighbors which for some is the only time of year I see them outside of the grocery store or post office. Anne still gives me gum, and although Jeff is a grown man, she sees him as a kid who needs gum, too!

The one tradition that I talked to Jeff about when he first moved here was one he thought I was a bit nuts upon first mention. He makes fun of me about it to this day, but honestly, this time of year brings back the best Halloween memory:

CORNING.

Corning is an act of vandalism. Yes, my favorite memory is an act of vandalism, folks. Innocent, easy to sweep up vandalism. It was the "thing to do" in these parts. This time of year, we would make a pilgrimage to our nearest corn field (which were much more plentiful back in the day) and pick the ears of corn that were "hardened." On most occasions I was "tagging along" with my brother and his friends (5 years older than me) who would really enjoy scaring the crap out of me with the Children of the Corn references. Fighting the urge to pee my pants, I would gather as many ears as I could and take it back to the house to shuck it into old tube socks (some one's mother was sometimes known to shuck that corn, too, shhh). We would then wait for nightfall to all gather together and get our code names. We would then approach some one's house, throw handfuls of corn on the count of 3 which made a loud sound on siding and run like .... well, until the front light flicked on or someone chased us.

Seriously, did we think that ALL of the neighbors didn't know. We did it every year, we weren't quiet in ANY WAY. We were all from the same neighborhood. funny. Our parents knew what we were doing and made sure we dressed warm and were reminded to not get any one's house we "didn't know" or was elderly... so we ended up doing mainly people's houses who were WITH us. dumb. My father knew we were dumb enough to come TRY to do our house, so he would get his "starter pistol" to scare us to death with (shooting it into the air, of course)... couple that with a gorilla mask (thanks for the nightmares, Dad!), and you are talking scared kids!

The secret is out. I am a vandal, but I had the MOST fun doing it! I look back now and realize that the adults in our area were pretty darn smart.... no soaped windows, no egged cars, no toilet papered trees (much) and no flaming bags of dog poo.... only some corn to sweep up in the morning. hmmm.

Jeff still thinks that I am weird.... anyone else do this in their neighborhood? What is your favorite childhood Halloween trick?