Courtney Ellis

1. Your costume had to fit over a snowsuit

Those boots in my hubby’s costume above? Yeah, those are Sorrel snow boots.

2. Houses were far apart and yards were big, so you had to work hard for each piece of candy

It was like 0.9 miles per mini Snickers. You basically had to eat all the candy while you walked so you didn’t die of starvation or hypothermia.

3. Halloween decorations were basically just stuff people had lying around anyway

Oh look, a hay bale. Well, aren’t you seasonally just so spot-on.

Corn husks? You’d better believe it.

Pumpkins? They’re growing out back.

4. Someone always handed out cans of soda…

Sweeeeeeet!

5. …which was great, until you realized it made your trick-or-treating bag weigh like ninety pounds.

So you spent the next mile trying to talk your younger sibling into carrying it for you.

“I’ll even let you have a sip! Promise!”

6. You didn’t mind the cold, because at least it meant all the mosquitoes were finally dead

Frostbite totally beats red, itchy welts and West Nile virus.

7. If you couldn’t come up with a costume, you could always just wear camouflage.

Because between deer hunters and military folks, every family had at least something you could borrow that could pass as a costume.

8. Haunted houses weren’t scary. Rumored razor blades in Milky Ways weren’t scary. The bears in the woods were scary.

So cute! Too bad it can rip your Halloween mask and your face off.

9. When you got a little older, it was all about finding out where the best bonfire would be

They were all way back in the woods. There was no GPS. You might get lost forever, but if not unlimited s’mores.

10. At the end of the day, candy is candy and it didn’t matter where it came from. What mattered most was how much you could eat before your mom told you to stop. 

And that, friends, is pretty universal no matter where you celebrated.

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Where’d you grow up celebrating Halloween? What’s your best Halloween memory?