By Lisa Marie Stahl
Earlier this week I sat at our kitchen table enjoying an afternoon snack when my 7-year-old sister came bouncing in the doorway. School had just been dismissed for the day.
Bet youll never guess what were having Friday? she asked as she sat down on the chair across from me.
What? I asked.
Were gonna have a Halloween party. In the afternoon were gonna get treats from the teacher, and then well play all sorts of games and then were gonna get dressed up. And on Sunday evening after supper were gonna go trick-or-treating to all the houses on the colony.
Interesting, I said. Am I invited to your party at school on Friday?
Not unless your still a kid, she answered as she grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl and left to play with her friends.
My sisters joy of the upcoming party brought back memories of my own school days when wed celebrate Halloween. Since we usually didnt wear costumes on our trick-or-treating round in the evening, we made it a point to get dressed up at school. Everybody could come to school wearing a costume of their choice that day.
Id just love to get dressed up as a girl going to a ball or a western cowgirl. Then Id have to be really careful not to get my dress wet or dirty when bobbing for apples or setting up the snack table.
Ill never forget the first time I learned to bob for apples. I was partners with one of the guys in my class. There was no way Id put my entire face into that water. I figured that would have been totally unladylike. I almost started to cry when our time was up and I saw my partner had caught all but two apples, and I had caught only one. After that I figured the only way I could beat the guys at this game was to play like one of them.
Sometimes when I see my sisters come home from school with their faces all painted up, struggling to get on their self-made costumes or just getting ready to go trick-or-treating around the colony, I wish for a minute I could be part of the group. Its the holidays like Halloween which make me think I grew out of childhood too fast.
