Halloween

Halloween was a nightmare for me as a small child.

My eyesight was 200/20 back then and my mother always bought me a costume with one of those hard plastic masks so I couldn't wear me glasses.

I went out into the night--face squashed, blind and literally 'in the dark'. There weren't many street lamps where I grew up because there weren't many streets! It can get really dark in rural Appalachia. I couldn't have found my way home if my father didn't keep hold of my hand while I carried whatever I carried to put candy in (a pillowcase maybe?).

So I had no hand free when the mask slipped and started to scar my face.

Besides all that there were the sounds--kids running amok screaming on a sugar high to sound spooky; the firecrackers and cherry bombs going off (any holiday in southern West Virginia needed fire works!) And big kids running by real fast, sometimes bumping into me.

It was terrifying! The candy didn't even taste good after being that scared....

I got to like it a bit more when my kids were small, but I never made them wear a plastic mask and took a flashlight with us. But I'm scarred for life--halloween has never held the fun for me that it does for lots of folks I know....