Halloween Greed--An Admission

Before I get to my short story, isn't this an adorable hat? I didn't knit it, it comes from the Etsy shop of KarlenKnits. I didn't have a suitable Halloween photo and thought I would like to feature another Etsy artist who had one. I hope you will check out her shop; right now she has this cute hat available in several sizes.

I laughed when I read her shop introduction becasue she says " I learned at my grandmother's knee that "anything worth doing is worth doing well", so I strive for exceptional craftsmanship." because that is something I heard many, many times from my own mother. I recall my mother making me take out a zipper that I had put in the wrong side of the first skirt I sewed. I couldn't understand why that was important at the time because it worked perfectly well on my right side instead of the left.

Now on to my story which is a bit of a confession about a Halloween past. One of the blog carnival topics for the Etsy Bloggers this month is: Share your favorite Halloween memory from your childhood (it could be a costume, party, etc.). I have to say that this is the Halloween memory which is most vivid to this day. Of course I have wonderful Halloween memories of making cute costumes for my children (superman, Beetle juice, Big Bird, clown are some I recall). Here in Idaho, however, the Halloween costume is often hidden under a warm winter coat. Growing up in California, we were able to go out trick or treating without outerwear.


When I was in about 6th grade, my best friend and I dressed up and went out trick or treating. I'm sure I was wearing one of my mother's handcrafted costumes. She was an excellent seamstress and made some wonderful ones. We got the usual mass quantity of candy by visiting each house in the neighborhood but it was still pretty early and apparently we weren't satisfied with what we had So we went home, changed into different costumes (gypsies or witches as I recall) and went out a second time, visiting the same homes again. I remember feeling a bit giddy as we headed out, then worried we'd be found out by a neighbor(I don't recall that we were) then ashamed about our activities. At least, thinking about it now, I hope we were a little ashamed. I can't imagine that our parents knew what we were doing and allowed it.

We all do things in our youth we wouldn't want to be known by our parents or society at large. I guess in the big scheme of things our Halloween greed isn't so awful as far as misdeeds go.