The way we observe Halloween has really changed over the years. Nowadays, you either love it, hate it, celebrate it or hardly notice it.

Back when I was young, Halloween was so simple. There wasn't any occult hoo-doo scary stuff, but just obnoxious silliness and fun. When I dressed up as a Barbie Princess or Glenda the Good Witch, my thoughts weren't on death or the spirits of departed relatives but on candy, a cute boy in my class and did I mention candy?

Oh the candy. About 2/3 of my loot was Milk Duds, Goobers, Gold Rush bubble gum, candy necklaces, Chick-o-stick, Pixie Sticks, Sweetarts, wax lips, a few Charleston Chews, Boston Baked Beans, Hot Dog gum, and my favorite, Atomic Fire Balls. I hated Boston Beans and Chick-o-stick - talk about gross! The rest of my plunder was homemade treats like candied or caramel apples, Rice Krispy treats, oranges, cupcakes, cookies, and homemade fudge. The only time my parents checked my candy was to eat the chocolate. We knew our neighbors and the only worrisome things were Old Mrs. Ethel's brownies which were more salty than sweet.

I never liked saying, "Trick or treat!" to our neighbors when we visited them on Halloween, and I never said, "Trick or treat, smell my feet," either. My older sister, Sherri finally explained it to me one time that when we say, "Trick or treat!" the people must give us candy or we get to perform a trick. I mentioned that I didn't know any magic tricks, and Sherri laughed, "No, not that kind of trick. A trick like soaping their windows or rolling their yard with toilet paper."

That sounded mean and I'd feel funny soaping Granny's windows because she'd make me clean it up. Sherri just smiled that evil smile of hers and left the room. Luckily, I never used my soap while Trick-or-treating.

My costumes were thin shiny polyester, and the masks were molded plastic with a tiny rubber band that held it to your head. I always wanted to be something beautiful like a princess, fairy or angel.

After Daddy took us trick-or-treating for an hour or so, he'd drop us off at Cohutta Elementary School's carnival. There was bobbing for apples, fishing for prizes, the duck pond, ring toss, basketball toss, and my favorite - the cake walk. One year I won three cakes! There was also a haunted house for the older kids. When I finally got old enough to visit the haunted house, I discovered that it was basically a small area in the boys' locker room with fake spider webs, black construction paper, creepy noises, lots of hanging crepe paper, and kids that jumped out at you yelling, "Booga! Booga!"

We never really decorated our house for Halloween, but usually carved a pumpkin. There were a couple of years that Daddy toyed around with playing scary music when people walked up to the door, but the trick-or-treaters weren't scared because they heard Daddy's giggles over the grunts and groans on the Halloween tape.

When I reached the old age of 13, I decided that I was too old to dress up for Halloween and wouldn't be caught dead trick-or-treating with my baby sister Traci. When Traci asked me why I didn't dress up, I thought I'd get back at her for various infractions like tying up the phone line, touching my stuff and breathing, so I said, "I'm too old to go trick-or-treating. Only babies dress up and go trick-or-treating."

Well, Sherri and Momma took Traci trick-or-treating and boy did she get me back. She came home with two full-sized grocery sacks full of delicious sweet joy. She chewed, chomped and slurped like there was no tomorrow. I had to wheel and deal to get some of her candy, so I let Traci play with my coveted Malibu Barbie so her Ken doll would have a new Barbie to date. I no longer played with Barbies, but some things have value - especially when another family member wanted them.

Traci gave me a handful of Sweetarts, two containers of Chick-lets and seven Tootsie Roll pops. Sherri walked in, hugged Traci and then promptly received half of Traci's candy. My mouth dropped open and the caramel flavored Tootsie Roll pop that I just bribed off Traci fell out. Sherri smiled one of her patented evil smiles and winked at me. Ah, that's why she went along trick-or-treating.

Nothing ever gets by Momma. She saw what happened and repeated one of her favorite sayings, "See? You get more flies with sugar than with vinegar."

Of course she was right. Plus I took great comfort in the fact that she said Traci was a fly and that Sherri ate bugs.

Unlike the Halloweens of today, those Halloweens were so simple. The only violence was the sisterly wrath of hair-pulling, Indian-burn-giving and fork-throwing fun.

Stay tuned for more of SouthernAngel's tricky stories!