It used to be that Halloween was my favorite holiday. That’s right. You woke up and said, “Oh, it’s Halloween.”
Then, while the children were at school you decided what you were going to make for costumes, and carved your best pumpkin with triangles for eyes and a toothless half-moon smile. Then you went to Kmart bought some treats, and got ready for the youngsters to show up. Or better yet, when I was trick-or-treating, there were popcorn balls and homemade fudge.
It’s not so anymore.
Today, you find Halloween has been pumped up as a holiday equal to Christmas. Preparations begin in September or earlier. Every famous television do-it-yourselfer has a line of Halloween decorations and some undeniably cute decorated sugar cookies for you to duplicate. One such person is Martha Stewart. She has been my idol since the early 80s and sends out hints and tips through social media for all the holiday celebrations.
Granted, Martha has some fabulous ideas for a happier holiday, provided you have the time. One year I plaited the edging of a pumpkin pie crust for Thanksgiving.
My Dad said, “Who has time to do things like that?”
“It’s not about time, Dad; it’s about details that make your holiday more like Martha’s,” I said.
One year when my two children were still trick-or-treating age, I received an email about decorating your home for Halloween. One day? Who has time for that? With school and the questionable weather, it was fun to simply carve a pumpkin or two. After dark we lit up the porch for would-be trick-or-treaters. Halloween was no competition with my neighbors across the street, Jerry and Connie. Jerry bragged to me every year about how he handed out FULL-SIZE candy bars and a can of soda. Single moms can’t compete with that kind of booty.
As far as decorating the house, I overheard my son, Adam say, “We never had to decorate for Halloween when we lived in our house in Mandan. There were always cobwebs on the chandeliers.”
“Not funny, Adam.”
For many years I sewed Halloween costumes with crocheted accessories geared towards the weather forecast for trick or treating. If it was a warm year, costumes were simple. If cold was forecast, there were costumes with crocheted wigs or warm winter hats.
We had fun. We have photos, but not nearly enough of the days before the iPhone recording every move in pictures and video clips.
We did pretty well with costumes until one year when my youngest, Adam, was about eight or nine, and did not have a costume. Before you pass judgment, remember no one planned for Halloween at that time in my life. For sure, we weren’t thinking about Halloween months in advance of Oct. 31, okay, maybe Oct. 30.
After school, about the time of the setting sun, we hunted top to bottom throughout the house for a costume idea for my son.
In desperation, we were running out of time. We found a brand-new 25-pound bag of cat food, sliced it open on the bottom end, and emptied the cat food into buckets. We then cut a hole big enough for a head and slits on the side for arms. Tada… Adam became a bag of cat food for Halloween, complete with an ice-cream pail for treats.
It was genius, or at least I thought so. We paraded around the neighborhood on that lovely fall evening with the rest of the clowns, princesses, devils and goblins. There were no stray cats trailing that bag of cat food either.
Only one guy atone house made an audible comment about Adam’s costume. I’m sure he meant for me to hear it as he said with a chuckle, “Really, Mom?”
It’s called “making do.”
Back in the day, that’s what we did. Rather than run out to stores that didn’t exist, we made do with what we had. My ancestors have been doing it for years. It’s creative and rewarding and the original recycling.
We tell that story every October as we prepare for yet another evening of candle-lit pumpkins and snack-size Snickers. These days, we live far out in the country. We don’t expect any knocks on the door. We also don’t expect alerts on our Blink unless it is a creature of the night.
PS: The Tri-County Tourism Alliance and the ND State Historical Society have created an exhibit entitled “The Art of Making Do.” It opens at the Heritage Center on Wednesday, Nov. 13. Children you will learn something from this exhibit about thrift.
The opening reception is planned for the afternoon of Wednesday, Nov. 20.
INDYchildrendotme 
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