With the exception of 2020, every Halloween since I graduated from college I have participated in Trunk-or-Treat in the church parking lot. Which I absolutely love taking a part in, mainly because I really love Halloween.
For those of you who might not know what Trunk- or- Treat is, it’s when children go trick or treating in a parking lot, often at a church, during the day by going from car trunk to car trunk to get candy.
Ideally the people who set up a car trunk for the kids to go to have decorated said trunks for the children. Much like some people used to do to their yards or garages when I was a kid going out on Halloween night.
Even though I can’t go over the top with a trunk like I remember some people doing with their houses I still try to get really into the decorating part. Last year I had bats and ghosts hanging all over my hatch back. This year I’m turning it into a 90’s Halloween movie grave yard. Which completely isn’t just an excuse to buy a plastic skeleton and dress it up.
It is completely an excuse to buy a plastic skeleton and dress it up. His name is now Gary.
The first couple of years I was really just helping out a family member with their trunk but last year I started doing my own. Which is one of the real signs that you’re moving up in the world is when you have to start doing or bringing our own thing to the event instead of being tagged onto someone else's.
I love helping at this event and the people running the event love me coming to help because I usually know or can guess what the kids are dressed up as. I for one remember that it was super important to me as a kid, and now, for the adults to know what my costume was when I was a child. Even in the event when I was the only one who knew what I was for Halloween it was still super important to me that people knew what I was without me explaining it to them.
It is starting to get harder for me to know what some of the character customers from the newer shows meant for preschool and kindergarten aged children are as Halloween is slowly becoming the only time that I interact with children of that age. Anything that is a classic costume though I can identify nearly every time.