I never thought there would be a day when I would star talking about the “good ole days” of when I was a kid, and here I am at 28 years old reminiscing about the simpler times of Halloween in the 90s.
I can almost picture it perfectly, being in elementary school in the 90s and not wanting to wake up early on Halloween morning to do my face paint and put on my costume, so my Mom would have to dig through the closet to find the black ghoul’s robe and “Scream” mask so I could get candy at school. That costume got me through like 5 years worth of school Halloween parties, and still to this day, I’ve ever watched “Scream”. 
Then, when school let out, that was when the real fun began. As soon as I got home it was costume time, and I was ready for face paint, creepy make-up, fake blood, the whole shebang. My parents would have my plastic pumpkin ready to go, with a pillow case ready to sit in the car every time I’d need to empty the plastic pumpkin. It was almost as exciting to me as Christmas morning, because I loooooooved candy! Then we’d head out around Kalkaska driving for hours collecting candy until it was almost bedtime. Now, all of this seems like a forgotten cause.
Nowadays the big-box Halloween stores sell super-expensive costumes and the kids want to be dress up as the same thing. Elsa, Batman, Kylo Ren…whatever is big at the time. Why aren’t kids zombies anymore? Or Frankenstein? Maybe it’s because schools are buckling down on what kids can be. No fake weapons. I understand that with the times we live in, but no facepaint, no masks, no hats…no originality. It kind of sucks. Plus, candy is looked down upon in school now, so I’m sure kids aren’t all sugared up like we used to be.
The biggest thing this day in age about Halloween is trick-or-treat times. A few years back, my fiancee brought me along when she took her son trick-or-treating, and it’s the first time I’d been out since I was a child, and I was shocked to see everything done by like 7pm. No more trick-or-treating after dark, houses turning their lights off and shutting things down as soon as the sun was going down.
I guess I should just settle down and enjoy the few years I can still take my future step-son trick-or-treating, and relive my childhood in a roundabout way…but jeez, things sure aren’t what they used to be. That’s why the 90s really were the “good ole days”.
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Catch me on That 90s Show every weeknight at 9pm on 104.5 BOB FM!