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Halloween, Compton, Circa 1950
I always went as a hobo. Since I was something of a rumpled kid anyway, my knees usually torn (I was an inveterate marble player), all that was left to do was to rub a bit of dirt on my face and then throw a stick over my shoulder at the end of which was a kerchief filled with crumpled newspaper. Voila: eleven-year-old boy transformed into a miniature bindlestiff on the hunt for candy.
It was a simpler time. Here are some kids in their homemade costumes. In 1950, you 
could get by (see the second kid from the left) with a painted-on mustache and a towel over your head. Sometimes a kerchief, simple mask, and a stuffed chest (like the kid on the far right) would do the trick. (I suspect there was a boy behind that mask. a boy who thought that his gigantic breasts were fricken hilarious. Well, I would have, anyway.)
In 1950, not many kids had commercially made costumes. In fact, I don’t remember any in my neighborhood. There were masks, of course, in the form of clowns, witches, monkeys, pumpkins, Indian maidens, and so on.
If a boy didn’t want to go as a hobo, he could get by on the cheap by going as a cowboy. All he needed was what he probably already had: a cap gun in a plastic holster, an oversized hat to serve as a cowboy hat, and a scarf around his neck. This was a time when Roy Rogers, Hoot Gibson, Gene Autry, and the rest of the B western movie actors were a regular staple of television and movies.
There might have been little cowgirls out trick or treating in 1950, but in my neighborhood, decidedly working-class, trick or treating at that time was mostly an activity of boys. So despite Dale Evans (Roy Rogers’ third wife) and a few other cowgirls to emulate, I never saw any of the few girls who were out trick or treating dressed as 
cowgirls.
As I was browsing through the vintage Halloween images in Google, I came across this photo to the right of a creepy gang of tiny trick or treaters being led down the street by a skeleton. Despite their diminutive statures, I think I would get out of their way if I saw them coming down the street toward me.
I also came across a number of photos of kids in blackface. It was apparently a common “costume.” As I’ve suggested, it was a different time.
In 1950, adults handed out penny candy, hardly ever a candy bar, no matter how small. However, rumors would sometimes run rampant around the neighborhood about how a certain house was giving away small candy bars or a nickel. We kids would converge on that house until the generous handouts were gone.
In 1950, my buddies and I thought that adults who dressed up for Halloween were creeps, especially those who answered the door wearing an elaborate costume and who stayed in character as they handed out candy. Halloween, we thought, was for kids, and adults should know their place. By contrast, these days Halloween seems as much for adults as it is for kids.
In fact, some adults today spend big bucks to decorate their houses and lawns, sometimes pretty spookily, as you can see by the photo to the right. Note the skeleton atop the hearse. This scene is from a woodsy front yard just a few blocks from my house. The guy next door to me has filled his yard with giant blow-up pumpkins and witches (which blew down the street during a recent wind and rain storm).
Nowadays, adults usually shepherd their charges around the neighborhood and then hover on the sidewalk while their kids beg for candy.
In 1950 I would rather have been poked in the eye with a sharp stick than be seen accompanied by my folks on Halloween night.
So that’s the way it was in Compton on Halloween in 1950 — the greatest day of the year (not counting Christmas day, of course). It may have started as All Hallows’ Eve, a day when Celtic spirits from the afterlife returned to earth, but we have turned that fearsome day into a frivolous 
imitation. An imitation with lots of candy.
Postscript: My daughter loves Halloween and has always gone all out with her kids’ costumes. This year, my grandson is going as a turtle and my 11-year-old granddaughter (photo to the right, taken just a few days ago) is going as an old lady.
Finally, here’s Bob the Dog in this year’s (also last year’s) lion costume. Halloween is Bob’s favorite holiday. He waits at the door for the kids to give him pats on the head and some “Good boys.” A wiseacre kid will sometimes ask, “What’s he supposed to be?”
We never did much Trick or Treating. I spent my prime Trick or Treating years (6-9) in France.
That wonderful photo from the 50’s is exactly right. In my blue-collar neighborhood, girls were just as often out as boys, but they were unlikely to be involved in the vandalism that was also popular in a time when the “trick” part of “trick or treat” was still taken seriously. The day after Halloween involved a lot of cleaning up. Decorations, if any, involved jack-o-lanterns with candles. I’m not sure what to make of the extensive displays in my neighborhood now. Are they intended as an announcement of artistic talent, or wealth, or not having enough to do, or just a failure to leave childhood behind?
Does anybody make their own costumes anymore? You are right about the adults getting into it more than the kids nowadays. We didn’t trick or treat much where I grew up. When you live in the country and the houses are at least a half mile off the road, sort of not the same. We would usually get a group together and have hayrides through/by local cemeteries and abandoned houses.
One of my best friends growing up had 7 kids in her family, so her mom was handy with the sewing machine and made the costumes. They were really good too. Throughout the year, we would pull the costume box out of the alcove in my friend’s room, which she shared with her three sisters, and dress up. One time I put on the rabbit costume and went to the kitchen, and her mom gave me a carrot.
My favorite costumes were the cheap ones I got from the drugstore, with the plastic mask that made your face sweat and the thin material. I had Casper, and a witches cape that had boiling pots on it, and a hat. That’s all you needed. I loved it so much that when I outgrew it, I insisted on wearing it, even though when I tied the cape under my chin, I practically choked myself…….those were the days. I also admit to pushing over trash cans and throwing a few eggs with my other best friend – she made me do it……
My first few Halloweens, I wore costumes that my grandmother had made for my mother when she was a child. After that, my sisters and I would make up our own outfits – hobos, tramps, princesses. One time I went Trick’r’Treating with my cousin. She dressed as a hobo (complete with a dirty face) and I was in a party dress. Some old guy said, “You must be Topsy and Little Eva.” We had no idea what he was talking about, but since he was giving out Hershey bars (the good stuff) we just nodded and said, “Yes.”
I am guessing that these days the kid on the far right in your first photo might be eligible to become a four-star admiral.
What a terrible thing to do to Bob. You can see the embarrassment written all over his face.
Usually? Sheesh. In my affluent northern Virginia neighborhood, kids are so “hovered” for their entire childhoods that often high school freshmen and sophomores are afraid to walk by themselves – or by twos, even – a half a mile to the corner drug store to buy a candy bar or a Squishee on a warm summer afternoon.
50+ years later, my brothers and I still pat ourselves on the back for taking that long walk (probably 200 yards or so) up the wooded driveway to the house where we were each given TWO (2!) full sized (what my Dad always called “nickel size”) Hershey bars. When the houses were spaced as far apart as they were in our neck of the woods, those long driveways demanded a cost/benefit analysis. We actually went back up that same long wooded driveway on our way back down that country road, and got a third candy bar each, along with a muttered “don’t you think you’re being a bit greedy?”
Hillbilly was an easy and authentic homemade costume, too. Gingham shirt, straw hat, and corncob soap bubble pipes were common.
Brings back memories. Thanks, Kent.
Thanks Kent – good stuff.
At this point, I’d like to attest that I am not, however, straight out of Compton.
I think the way Americans celebrate Halloween has changed in my lifetime more than any other holiday.
The decorations are sure way more elaborate than they were when I was a kid.
I see your point, but I would say that the “celebration” of Christmas has changed more in my lifetime.