Happy Halloween Memories: Teenagers Trick-Or-Treating In 1976

This will not scare you but what are the odds? Issue #23

IfOnlyi… We hadn’t stopped at that house, and only if I didn’t have a second mask, prepared to cheat, I would not have had to write this part of my life’s story today. Cheating never works, not ever! Just last night, I dreamt about robbers breaking into my home. Was I reliving the memories before I wrote this story? What are the odds?

On Halloween night in 1976, my friend Rick and I were on a trick-or-treat mission. Remember Rick? He’s the one who convinced me to let him use my parents’ lawn mower motor to power his go-kart!

My middle sister and I were each given a pillowcase, and I told her we were having a contest. Whoever filled the pillowcase the highest would win the other person's treats. So, in essence, she could win all mine, or I could win all hers.

Rick had a plan: Let’s get two masks each, and we can change masks. Then, we can go back a second time to the homes that give out the most candy wearing different masks, and no one will know we had already been there.

So off we went. Rick had his own goals, not involving mine. Trick or Treat!!!

We went home after home after home. There were no apartments where we lived, and folks were always kind and giving in our neighborhood. My pillowcase was slowly starting to fill up, slowly but surely, and I only had to use my second mask a few times.

I was feeling lucky but had no clue what my sister and her friends would do to win my entire workload. She was as competitive as I was, believe me. In all sports she would go out full blast to win, win, win. I knew it would be a tight fight.

We came upon a home on a brightly lit street. The front lights were on. We rang the doorbell, and no one answered. We waited and waited, and then Rick sneaked up to look through the window when he saw a huge bowl brimming with candies.

It was bigger than a fruit bowl if you could picture it, no one there. I turned to see where Rick had run off to and I saw him inside the home. Flip’s sake! My heart started cranking fast, I was about to leave when Rick opened the front door and told me to hold my pillowcase open.

EVERYTHING poured straight into my pillowcase, and Rick ran back in, shut the front door, and closed the back door. He joined me as I was running fast in case someone was after me, and told me that the back door had been left open, so he slipped into the house. My bag was nearly full, so I suggested we run to the store about a mile and a half away and buy something to drink.

Now, hold tight, this is where it gets Bizarre.

We walked up to the check-out counter, and a lady was paying for her bag, which was filled to the brim, but I couldn’t see what she had in there. The cashier asked her why she bought so much candy late on Halloween night.

The lady replied, “BECAUSE SOMEONE STOLE MY ENTIRE BOWL OF CANDY” …. Are you kidding me? BECAUSE SOMEONE STOLE MY ENTIRE BOWL OF CANDY” …. Are you kidding me? My face turned as red as the beats of my Heart……… What if she looked down at the pillowcase I could barely hold on to? Would she wonder why I had so much Candy?

Probably 20 pounds of candy, almost overflowing, so I was clinching not only my butt cheeks and holding my breath, but I was also not going to let the pillowcase go at any cost. Had she noticed candy falling from my bag, I would have been done for.

Rick, on the other hand, thought it was funny. Ha-ha, not so. What are the odds? Someone, please tell me. I was so lucky that I didn’t get caught, and I’m glad I was not the one who went into her house.

The next day, it was time to measure out the volume between my sister and me. Who had won? Now I know she didn’t steal the lady’s candy because we did, but I saw her pillowcase, and it was full to the top.

FULLER than mine, I couldn’t believe it, so I turned all of mine over to her without a fight, without challenging her on how she got so much candy. I later found out that all her friends gave her their candy to win the bet, and they then shared hers and mine.

…ifOnlyi…short stories are published chronologically, and follow my life growing up in California from 4 years old. If you’ve just found me the stories will come together when you start reading from…Issue #1