Halloween Ponders

Halloween has never been a big deal for Debbie and I — we have no children, and the holiday doesn’t hold any intrinsic attraction for either of us. When we lived in the “big city” (Chula Vista, affectionately known by residents as “Chulajuana” because of its proximity and resemblance to Tijuana, Mexico, just across the border), every Halloween we would have a bunch of kids show up at our door. Typically they’d be in store-bought costumes, which is iconic for me for how the holiday has been debased and twisted from an interesting and engaging family experience into a kind of plastic, shallow, and essentially meaningless experience for all. But some of the kids were cute, and especially with the younger ones there was adventure in it. So we participated with the obligatory bags of candy and surprised expressions when we answered the door. Actually, Debbie mostly did that, while I hid somewhere deep in the house.

Now that we’ve moved out of the city and into a rural area, things have changed on several fronts. Our house is so out-of-the-way that nobody sends their kids up here trick-or-treating. We’ve literally never had a trick-or-treater knock upon our door. The first couple of years we lived out here, conditioned by our Chulajuana experience, we were prepared with candy, etc. But no one ever showed, and then we had to figure out how to dispose of the horrible confections we’d bought. But I’ve noticed one other change, as well, and pondered its meaning: an interesting fraction of the trick-or-treaters I’ve seen while driving through our valley are in obviously homemade costumes.

My first thought, upon observing this, was that it probably reflected the relative poverty of the residents out our way (average incomes out here are clearly quite a bit lower than in the 'burbs of San Diego County). But then on reflection I think that’s not the case. Another piece of evidence: it’s also true that we have a high proportion of families who home-school their kids — and you certainly don’t elect to home-school to save money. From these and other observations, I conclude that what’s really happening is that very generally the folks out here have a different set of values with respect to their kids. They’re more engaged with them, and devote more of their attention to them.

And they often make their own Halloween costumes, presumably with their kids (and the homemade costumes I’ve seen sure look like the kids were involved!). One of the many reasons why I love living where we do…