Oh...the memories

The memories came flooding back last night when I was commenting on a card made for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge....a Halloween Card...now when I was a child and let me tell you that is neither here nor yesterday....many moons ago my friends.....children were allowed to be children. We used to get the biggest turnip (or neep as we call it here in Aberdeenshire) we could find (no pumpkins in those days) .....sometimes we asked the farmer but more often than not we stole it from the field.....to make our lantern... the kitchen was commandered for the rest of the night...newspaper spread on the floor and with the help of Dad because it was hard....hard work..we would scoop all the flesh out and then cut out holes for eyes, a nose and a mouth and the mouth had to have teeth...poor Dad...he had two to do. Let me tell you, the house stank of turnips for weeks after. Holes were poked in the side and string fitted for a handle and it had a lid. Inside had a little hollow for a candle.....yes a proper candle....none of your high falutin' tea lights in them thar days....imagine shock horror, wouldn't be allowed today....children near a naked flame.....If it was a windy night the bloody thing kept blowing out until one year my Dad came up with the brilliant idea of using a torch...it was never the same.
Great excitement as the big night approached and off we set my sister, me and a few friends all dressed up...we thought we were the bees knees and if I recall we gave more than a few neighbours near heart attacks....and you had to sing for your supper as they say...do a poem...tell a joke or sing a song....i think they just showered us with stuff to get us to shut up......now the purpose of this started off as "Penny for the Guy"......supposedly to collect money to buy fireworks but we were more interested in the bags of sweets and apples and such like and we each had a big pillowcase to stuff our loot in and it kept us going for weeks.
What a sad reflection on the society we live in today that children no longer seem to be allowed to be children.....apparently at a local nursery they are not allowed to celebrate Halloween...no witchy costumes or scary masks.....why..... because it is a pagan festival..... PLEEEEASE..... don't get me started....... and of course, what parent in their right mind nowadays would allow their kids to wander the streets in the dark calling at strangers' homes.......
In those times we didn't have computers, Wi's, mobile phones or the like but we had FUN...good old fashioned FUN.....and they really were the good old days.
Hope to get back later in the day with my Arty Girlz challenge card ...if Oliver co-operates and goes down for his afternoon nap......Love Kath xxxxx