The ancient term for it is “guising” but all of us call it “trick or treating” during Halloween.

But some things sure do change. I look at these wonderful costumes and make-up that could have come right from a movie set in Hollywood (or in some cases Canada). From Smurphs to Ironman, to Zombies, they’ll all be out in force knocking on your door and yelling “trick or treat” when you answer the door.

I look at the good old days when all that was required was a plastic mask of your favorite character that you placed over your face and was held there by a thin rubber band. Almost every time you put the thing on the band snapped, stinging your cheek or ear and then you were running to mom to fix it because the guys were waiting. By the way, these masks were very difficult to wear for those of us who had glasses.

I didn’t realize until years later that “trick or treat” was actually a threat to the person who answered the door. “Give me some candy or I’m going to play a trick on you.” These “tricks” usually involved one of three things; soap, eggs, or tipping something over. Anybody young enough to not know what you do with these things….ask your parents.

But one guy took the “trick” portion a little differently. We rang his doorbell and shouted “trick or treat” and he promptly pulled a quarter out of my buddy Jimmy’s ear. “There’s your trick guys, have a good night” and shut the door. We both looked at each other and said “what the heck was that?”

Mike was another friend down the block. He went to the same house and the dude told him to pick which hand this little red ball was in and if you got it right he’d give you a treat. Mike said he picked the left hand and was wrong. “Oh, so it was in the right hand?’ Mike said it wasn’t in either one! “What the heck was that?”

I lived in the Morningside addition of Moorhead and one year two blocks down from us we got some real interesting neighbors. I kid you not. “The Unbelievable Uglies’ had bought a house on Birch Lane. That’s right; one of the hottest regional rock and roll bands was just two blocks down! Kids we’re running at us yelling “The Uglies are giving away money”, what did I just hear? Giving away money for Halloween? One of them held out the two Lincoln’s that were placed in his goodie bag as proof they weren’t lying. (Don’t read too much into this; remember Lincoln is on the penny too.) We switched masks three times that night and went back for more cash.

But another change is that when I was a kid our family cut out the trick or treating at the 6th grade. You were too old to go around ringing doorbells after that. No age limit now I guess. I’ve had high schoolers come to the door with no costume whatsoever and ask for candy.

Candy is getting better though! From bubble gum whose flavor lasted only a couple of minutes and jawbreakers that really could break your jaw to Rolos, Tootsie Rolls and brand named candy bars.

And finally, the biggest change could be the number of kids coming to the door each Halloween. More and more of the youngsters are going to organized events at the mall, schools even church and attendance at individual homes is down. So my new motto will be “The Last Kid gets what’s left of the candy.”

My midsection does not need it. Happy Guising Kids!!!

bob.harris@mwcradio.com