Halloween in a new scene

Let me be completely honest. I've never been much of a fan of Halloween. As a kid I enjoyed dressing up and going door-to-door. My mother made some pretty elaborate home-made costumes and I liked the costumes parades. As I got older I didn't find another part of the tradition to get excited about. Everywhere we lived, once you were old enough to to roam without supervision it was a celebration of playing tricks and more importantly, destruction. It was the day homeowners didn't want to leave their home in the evening because they wanted to be able to call the fire department if someone set their garden on fire. Fireworks and firecrackers whizzed down every street. Some kid always blew their hand off trying to make a mega bomb out of the various fireworks materials and there was often some sordid tale in the newspaper the next day of a cat or dog being killed. Teenagers with baseball bats would be driving up and down the roads bashing all the mailboxes off their posts. The day after halloween looked like a post apocalyptic world. Jack-o-lanterns's had been kicked to pulp, burned bushes smoldered to ashes and police tape fluttered over the former windows of whichever store had suffered the worst vandalism.

Now I have my own kids I'm trying to reclaim the fun parts of Halloween for them. This year we decided to venture out in Fairfax with our 2 1/2 year old son. I'd already driven through town a few times during the day and felt this vibe of anticipation and excitement in the air. As we cruised into town that night we observed that every human and pet of every age was in costume. We'd missed the parade this year due to a long nap but it appeared to us that the parade had spilled into every corner. My mother commented that it was more like Mardi Gras than Halloween. The park was lit up and decorated with hay bales and all the restaurants and bars were filled with patrons in full regalia. A main residential street was shut down to traffic allowing all the trick-or-treaters to walk safely from house to house and it wasn't just tiny kids, all ages seemed to participate. The town hall had collected candy in the week before Halloween to help the residents on this street keep up with the volume of trick-or-treaters. Teenagers were out with their friends and their families participating and engaging. It was entirely a different planet from what I was used to. And what a nice surprise. Fairfax, you just might have turned me into a fan of Halloween.