Halloween in The 80’s Was the Best Ever

Halloween in the 80’s was the best ever.

Here’s a picture of a passed out Cheerleader (me) on my Dad’s shoulder.

My younger sister is that girl down below with her hair up in a bun. I’m sure she was a “princess” or something generic.

Halloween in the 80’s had zero pressure to create the perfect costume crafted from Pinterest.

Instead moms everywhere pulled out the dress up box, and said, “Go crazy – you can be whatever you find in here.”

A ghost.

A cheerleader.

A princess.

If you could find something around the house and become a cowboy or a pirate, you were set.

There was no Amazon Prime to purchase a $50 costume, and there were no competitions to see who had the best costume.

We were all satisfied with simple because we weren’t trying to one up the costume on Instagram from the kid down the street.

We also didn’t have 52 activities leading up to the big day. We didn’t have to go to a halloween neighborhood party, and a church one, and a school one, and dress up our kids over and over and OVER again.

Halloween was one big night that we all waited for in eager anticipation. One big night where we wore ourselves out and our Dads had to carry us home slung over their shoulders.

There was no big fear of who was handing out the candy. OK yes, there was the rumor of razorblades, but we all knew that wasn’t real.

We met up in the streets at dark (YES – DARK) with the neighborhood kids and we were surprised to see what our neighbor friends dressed up as. Because we hadn’t seen it ahead of time 84 times.

We went house to house to our neighbors that we all knew, and got excited about every little piece of candy. RARELY we got a full size candy bar, but we didn’t care.

We were just thrilled to get any candy.

Now a house in my neighborhood only hands out full sized bars and sometimes toys if you get there early enough.

We even got a penny from the old lady down the street or treats that were obviously homemade.

We ate them. Because they were our neighbors.

We ran as fast as our little legs could carry us from house to house and when we got old enough, our parents just let us run free.

There was no driving to the church parking lot “trick or treating” at the trunk or treat.

We were happy with whatever we got. Right there in our own little hood.

I don’t know about you, but I have been almost brought to tears because of the stress of Halloween today.

No longer can you just slap some pony tails on your kid, give her some floozy make-up and a denim skirt and call the costume good.

A quick trip around the block after dinner is not all there is to it. NOOO.

You dress them up 5 times, got boo’ed, had to boo people back, kept them from getting grass stains or chocolate on their costumes for a week, cooked chili for the neighborhood block party, and spent hours on pinterest finding the perfect school snack that I could take that was dairy, soy, nut, AND gluten free but also looked like a ghost.

By the time Halloween night comes around, you are seriously questioning your sanity. When the actual Halloween night comes around, you just want it to be over.

The 80’s at Halloween were the best.

Because there was just so much less pressure to have the perfect costume from a Netflix series everyone is in to, or the latest video game craze (I’m looking at you Fortnite)

We were ghosts and goblins, and cowboys and princesses.

And that was good enough.

We were just happy to have some candy to rot our teeth with. And there was no turning it into the Dentist either.

We ate it all ourselves.

Because Halloween in the 80’s was the best ever.