When I was a child, Halloween was like Lord of the Flies write large in suburbia. Children in cheap costumes risked life and limb heading out into the streets, lanes and dead ends. They used to be called “dead ends” before we invented cul de sacs.
Thuggery reigned in every neighborhood for one night over all others. High schoolers crammed into belching rusty cars and drive around with fire extinguishers searching for targets. Junior high maniacs dressed as hobos swung socks full of flour onto your head and shoulders while kids in plastic costumes armed only with melted down Barbasol cans braved the streets in hopes of caloric bliss.
It was a horror.
Damn I miss those days.
