“Halloween was different when I was a boy,” Grandpa said as he sat looking out the living room window at the fields of pumpkins. “It was about the holiday, ghosts, goblins. Now it's all just tits and ass.”
“Dad!” Mrs. Murphy admonished her father from the kitchen when she heard his vulgarities. She shook her head at him and continued cleaning off the table after the family dinner.
“Well.” He turned to her, with a slight redness of anger in his voice. “It’s true. Tits and ass and all the girls acting like sluts.” He turned back to the window, just as a young girl, who couldn’t be more than eighteen ran by, in a low cut top, cleavage bouncing. “All tits and ass.”
“Dad, there are children in the room with you. Hate on Halloween all you like, but please, watch your language.”
Grandpa looked over at his two grandchildren, Billy and Mavis, sitting together and pretending not to hear their grandpa and mother argue. Both of them glued to the television watching the Charlie Brown special on DVD.
“Children, grandpa is sorry for saying those bad words in front of you.” He says slyly, with a downturned head and only a hint of a condescending smile.
Billy turned to face his grandfather, “it’s ok Pop Pop. I wasn’t paying attention.”
“Good boy Billy,” His mother said.
“I promise from now on it’s boobs and butts, no more tits and ass” Billy cracks and laughs out loud, which starts Mavis laughing.
“DAD!”
“Calm down. I’m just joshing sweetheart.” He looks at Billy and winks.
Mom walks into the living area, drying her hands on a kitchen towel as she walks toward her father. She grabs him around the shoulder and plants a kiss on his balding head.
“I know you are dad, but the world they are growing up in is so bad. I just want them to come home and be in a safe place, away from all the evil in the world.
“I know darling.” he looks up at her and sighs. “I’ll watch my dirty old Irish mouth. I just get so tired of this modern trash.”
“I know daddy. Just try, that’s all I ask.”
Mom turns and walks back into the kitchen, and out of grandpa’s sight. He watches her go and keeps his eyes on the doorway that opens into the kitchen. Soon the sound of rattling dishes comes to their ears.
Grandpa eases himself out of his chair, steadying himself on his cane. Once up he walks slowly over to the couch where Billy and Mavis sit watching cartoons. The two kids are huddled together, and grandpa waves his hands.
“Scoot over and let Grandpa sit between his little buddies.” The two kids separate and grandpa slowly lowers himself onto the old living room couch. “What are you watching?
“Charlie Brown” Mavis says without taking her eyes off the TV.
“Ahh good. An old fashioned Halloween show.” He smiles. “Halloween was different when I was a child.” He raises a boney finger and points at the screen. “It was more like that.”
“Not boobs and butts.” Billy giggled and grandpa shushed him, then grinned at him.
“Not at all. It was about the holiday, about the season. It was about Halloween.” Grandpa’s eyes took on a somber, far away look. “I miss those days.”
“So what was Halloween like when you were a kid?” Billy asked.
“Oh it was wonderful. All the kids in costumes, homemade costumes mostly, although some of the fancier kids had store bought. The kids whose parents had more money.” Grandpa said. “It was all about the changing season, the harvest and the coming of winter.”
“No spooky stuff?” Mavis asked, turning toward her grandfather.
“Well, of course there was spooky stuff.” Grandpa said. “The changing of seasons is spooky on its own. Night comes earlier, and lasts longer. The air is colder, and if your harvest failed it could be a very long, hungry winter. Folks used to die over a bad winter back then.”
“Really?” Billy asked.
“Sure enough. You had to prepare. You had to get ready for the winter back then. Now you just turn the heat up, and warm your car up before you go to the grocery store. Back then you had to get ready, and that’s what Halloween was, time to get ready.
“Like shelling peas, and making jam.” Mavis had gotten interested in the story.
“Yes, and other things. It’s more than just putting up food.” Grandpa looked back at the kitchen, plates still clattered. “You see kids, back then a lot of us didn’t even call it Halloween. To quite a few of us, the holiday was called Samhain.”
“Saw wane?” Billy asked.
“Close enough. Samhain was different from Halloween.”
“No boobs and butts.” Billy grinned.
“No.” Grandpa smiled at his grandchild. “Not at all. Samhain was a time to pray, to pray for a short, mild winter. A time to pray for the food supplies to last, and pray that spring comes early. It was Halloween without all the malarkey.”
“That doesn't seem much like Halloween.” Mavis said.
“No, not really, but Halloween developed from Samhain, and what we did on that night.”
“So what about wearing masks, and getting candy, the whole trick or treat?” Mavis asked.
Remember, summer was gone, and fall was fading, the world was getting dark. A lot of folks believed that the dead walked the earth during Samhain. So people would wear masks, so if they ran into a ghost, or worse, a demon, they wouldn’t get recognized.” Grandpa shifted his weight and continued. “So now, the people believed that demons and ghosts were around, and all these people were wearing masks, pretending to be demons. So what do you think happened?”
Mavis shrugged but Billy thought just a second, smiled and shouted. “They started playing tricks on people!”
“That’s right. They would run up to people’s doors and yell, TRICK OR TREAT, and well people gave them stuff. They gave them clothes, food, and money, because otherwise they got the trick.” Grandpa looked at Billy. “Do you know what the tricks were?”
Billy shook his head.
“Well depending on who you were, it could get pretty bad. If you were a mean person, the kids might let your horses loose in the night, or break out your windows. If you were ok, then maybe they would just throw mud on your windows. Maybe put some cow shit on your porch.”
“So that, over the years, changed into trick or treating. Where little kids go and beg for candy. Or they used to, now it’s just…’
“Tits and ass!” Billy volunteered. Grandpa held up a finger to shush him, but with the other hand he ruffled his hair. Billy was a good little boy, he was grandpa’s little boy.”
“Like Grandpa said, times were different then. We had to make deals with the gods so winter would be short.”
“Gods?” Mavis asked, “Like Jesus and the Holy Ghost? Pastor Williams says they are the same thing.”
“Well Pastor Williams is a retard.”
“Grandpa!” Millie exclaimed when she heard the “R” word.
“Ok, let's say he's special, and stupid.” Billy giggled again. “No Christmas and Easter are for Jesus, and his daddy, and now so is Halloween. Kind of anyway. But Samhain, oh no, Samhain was for Calliagh.”
“What?” Billy and Mavis asked in tandem.
“The Calliagh, the hag. She’s the goddess of winter, the goddess of death.” Grandpa said. “We prayed to her to shorten her season, to end the winter and bring a new spring. A time for planting and growing after the time of death.”
“And when the winter dragged on, when it got really cold, we had to trade with her.” Grandpa stopped to look back in the kitchen. Lauren wouldn’t like him talking like this to the little ones. Seeing no one coming from the kitchen he turns back to the kids, to hell with Lauren.
“Did that idjit Pastor Williams ever tell you kids about a sacrifice?”
“Yes sir Pop Pop. He said the Israelis did a sacrifice to God to show they loved him.” Billy said.
“That’s right, they did, for a long time.” Grandpa nodded. “ Then they started thinking they knew as much as God, they thought they knew more, so they stopped making sacrifices.” He reaches over and taps Billy in the center of the forehead. “And that’s why Israel fell to the Arabs. Now my folks, from Ireland, and other places, we didn’t care about showing Calleigh we loved her. We wanted her to know we feared her. And if we feared her, and showed her respect, she might let us have a mild winter.”
“As time went by, fewer and fewer of us offered up a sacrifice. We forgot where we came from, and that’s why the world is so,” He looks around again, “fucked up.”
“Did you do a sacrifice Pop Pop?” Mavis asked
“I did.” Grandpa nodded his head sharply. “When I was a younger man.”
“What did you sacrifice Pop?” Billy asks.
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