Candy
*Hallowe’en! There is a day I have always adored if any! First of all, it is my birthday, and celebrating one’s birthday the day and mostly the night of Hallowe’en is something quite special.
And as though this was not enough for the little girl that loved so much everything that day brings, October 31st is also my mother’s birthday.
It goes without saying that we make a big deal out of such an amusing day.
For several years now, 31 years actually, we have been transforming our house as a “spooky” museum.
Nowadays, stores are stocked with decorations, but back then, we had to manage with almost nothing.
In our region, Hallowe’en was almost unheard of, and stores had absolutely none of those decorations except bags of “Saint-Catherine taffy” that bore wrappings the color of that feast. We kept every candy raping to paste the walls with; and balloons, garlands and a short, unpretentious puppet show took care of the rest.
Then came the time of the small trick-or-treat bags decorated with pumpkins drawings etc. that joined up the “taffy wrappings”.
For several years, in quite a large area, we were probably the only ones celebrating Hallowe’en, and I like to believe that we have contributed to popularize that day which we missed, I think.
After a few years, we were having our “yearly train trip to *Montreal” in October. In that big city, stores had many Hallowe’en decorations including realistic cobwebs. I remember what a sensation those decorations and the cobwebs caused the first year we used them.
What is amusing is the fact that the year after that and mostly two years later, on general demand I always thought; and to our great pleasure, the stores in our region began to fill up with various Hallowe’en decorations everyone could buy.
Now, our house has become a museum with “life like figures” but I love to decorate a small corner like we used to; it is a most agreeable childhood memory that is close to my heart.
* In years of yore, and still often today, HALLOWEEN was written with an apostrophe “HALLOWE’EN” that meant and still means “ ALL HALLOWS’ EVE ”. I like to keep this antique way (that is still used in many countries) of spelling that word).
* Montreal (Quebec, Canada)