30 Hours

”Trick or treat,” James and Ian mumbled as they stood by the door. Just recently verbal, this was their first Halloween when they said the time-honored phrase instead of having Sandi and me speaking for them. Even so, the boys loved it.

I’ve always loved Halloween and I still treasure my memories. I even did the math. Starting at about age 3 and going through age 12, with only those three hours of early dark, it comes to about 30 hours. We only have about 30 hours of a child’s life to create memories that will last until memory finally fails.

The effort is fun, but the unspoken goal is serious, and we put tremendous time and effort into it. Hours and money spent creating a costume that is worn only for this one day we consider well spent. Or, we can start simply as we did with James before his first birthday when his costume was a purple lightning bolt on his forehead. None of the adults recognized it, but all the kids exclaimed, “Look, it’s the baby Harry Potter.”

James and Ian went through a variety of costumes: hooded cloaks that made them look like hobbits, Civil War outfits and various homemade costumes that were inexpensive, but took a lot of time to craft. Big kids now, they want super hero costumes, one year going as Batman and Robin, then wanting to be Green Lantern and a Star Wars trooper.

Although there is some debate, 13, the first of the teenage years, has been the traditional cutoff for trick-or-treating. Now James is 12, and this will be his last time. I thought of last year’s outing and how he and Ian both yelled “Trick or treat!” with gusto and enthusiasm. For their lifetime of memories, I think we succeeded.

William R. Bartlett lives in Belton with his family.