October 31st, The Forgotten Holiday
Its November 1st already...
Man, this year has just flown by. I wish my universal remote control really could control the universe and not just TV and DVD player... my life could do with a good "pause while I go to the kitchen fridge" right about now.
I hope everyone had a wonderful, and safe, Halloween-doing whatever it you and your peeps do on Halloween.
I had a good one.
We had a "Dress-Up Day" at our school; which is a real treat for the students since they have a uniform dress-code they have to follow. I have my history block on Mondays, so me and the full-out history teacher that started with me decided to have a little fun with history... and dressing as Bill and Ted from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (I was Bill S. Preston, Esq.). Who said history teachers had to be boring and not cool? After all we talk about some totally righteous historical dudes like So-Crates and Joan of Arc (who was definitely *not* Noah's wife). Plus, we got our classes together and show them movie, since all of them had never seen it. Most of them walked out, that day, with a new favorite.
Then, after school, I had to quickly make it over to the East End Community Center. I ended up volunteering my night with a local program, that works in-conjunction with some of the major, inner-city groups' in my community, that supervises children during trick-or-treating on Halloween-called "A Spooktacular Night". This is the first year I've volunteered for this, mostly because I just found out about this program last week. They were really glad I signed up, apparently not many people did.
See, a lot of the elementary-age kids where I teach sometimes don't have the luxury to go out, door to door, and get candy because they don't have anyone to take them out. They may have a single mom who works or a grandparent that can't walk a long distance (or walk at all). Some are even in state care. But, most of them live over in the projects, and that *not* a place you really want to be out knocking on stranger's doors.
We tend to look at it this way; at least they're with adults that will look out for them and not... say... at home, by themselves, waiting for some punk-kids to set fire to their house because they didn't get the memo that "Devil's Night" was last night (which this year was good, only three buildings were set on fire... yes, *that* is a good year).
It was a wonderful night. We ended up having enough people to have 5 groups of 10... That’s 50 kids that would have, otherwise, not been allowed to go out and enjoy themselves.
It's kind of sad, in a way... Halloween has become a bummer of a holiday for me.
Everyone always thinks about underprivileged and struggling kids around Thanksgiving and Christmas. People will come to our communities’ toy drives and "Stuff the U-Haul Van". And they are generous with their donations; they're all really cool and really brighten up these holiday seasons. But, it seems like once December 26 rolls around, they tend to get forgotten until the next two weeks before November 20th.
I like to call it "Christmas Brain".
But, what about the other holidays those kids look forward too? Like Halloween? Sorry, sucks to be you, kiddo...
One lady who's in the program was telling me that, last year, they organized a "costume donation drive"; if anyone had a gently-used Halloween costume that their kid outgrew or didn't want to keep, they could drop it off and it would be given to a child who's family couldn't afford one. Well, she told me that the drive was such a flop and nobody came to donate, that they decided to not continue it this year. She was pretty sad about that, since a lot of kids go trick-or-treating without costumes and get hassled by people passing out candy because they don't (which then make the kid feel even worse).
Sadly, my district's kids know the harsh reality about holidays. They view all holidays as luxuries that only the privileged few can enjoy. Basically, if it's in a month not ending in 'december', then no one really cares about them. Valentine's Day, Easter, Birthdays? They think they'd have a better chance of getting a pink teddy bear from the Red Cross after their house goes up in flames then to get one for their Birthday or Valentine's Day.
When kids start telling you; "I ain't getting candy from the Easter Bunny because the dude doesn't have the hook-up with the Salvation Army" or "I don't celebrate Halloween because you can't buy a costume with welfare money" then you know you have a problem.
I'm sorry for depressing you guys on what it to be a fun holiday. I just kind-of needed to get that off my mind.
Well, I wish you a good November (I am, in 2 weeks, I'll be in Las Vegas).
And, next time you see a group trying to help kids out for Halloween... with anything, like a costume drive or volunteers wanted for community parties, don't forget 'em. Try to make all their holidays good, not just Christmas. :)
Man, this year has just flown by. I wish my universal remote control really could control the universe and not just TV and DVD player... my life could do with a good "pause while I go to the kitchen fridge" right about now.
I hope everyone had a wonderful, and safe, Halloween-doing whatever it you and your peeps do on Halloween.
I had a good one.
We had a "Dress-Up Day" at our school; which is a real treat for the students since they have a uniform dress-code they have to follow. I have my history block on Mondays, so me and the full-out history teacher that started with me decided to have a little fun with history... and dressing as Bill and Ted from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (I was Bill S. Preston, Esq.). Who said history teachers had to be boring and not cool? After all we talk about some totally righteous historical dudes like So-Crates and Joan of Arc (who was definitely *not* Noah's wife). Plus, we got our classes together and show them movie, since all of them had never seen it. Most of them walked out, that day, with a new favorite.
Then, after school, I had to quickly make it over to the East End Community Center. I ended up volunteering my night with a local program, that works in-conjunction with some of the major, inner-city groups' in my community, that supervises children during trick-or-treating on Halloween-called "A Spooktacular Night". This is the first year I've volunteered for this, mostly because I just found out about this program last week. They were really glad I signed up, apparently not many people did.
See, a lot of the elementary-age kids where I teach sometimes don't have the luxury to go out, door to door, and get candy because they don't have anyone to take them out. They may have a single mom who works or a grandparent that can't walk a long distance (or walk at all). Some are even in state care. But, most of them live over in the projects, and that *not* a place you really want to be out knocking on stranger's doors.
We tend to look at it this way; at least they're with adults that will look out for them and not... say... at home, by themselves, waiting for some punk-kids to set fire to their house because they didn't get the memo that "Devil's Night" was last night (which this year was good, only three buildings were set on fire... yes, *that* is a good year).
It was a wonderful night. We ended up having enough people to have 5 groups of 10... That’s 50 kids that would have, otherwise, not been allowed to go out and enjoy themselves.
It's kind of sad, in a way... Halloween has become a bummer of a holiday for me.
Everyone always thinks about underprivileged and struggling kids around Thanksgiving and Christmas. People will come to our communities’ toy drives and "Stuff the U-Haul Van". And they are generous with their donations; they're all really cool and really brighten up these holiday seasons. But, it seems like once December 26 rolls around, they tend to get forgotten until the next two weeks before November 20th.
I like to call it "Christmas Brain".
But, what about the other holidays those kids look forward too? Like Halloween? Sorry, sucks to be you, kiddo...
One lady who's in the program was telling me that, last year, they organized a "costume donation drive"; if anyone had a gently-used Halloween costume that their kid outgrew or didn't want to keep, they could drop it off and it would be given to a child who's family couldn't afford one. Well, she told me that the drive was such a flop and nobody came to donate, that they decided to not continue it this year. She was pretty sad about that, since a lot of kids go trick-or-treating without costumes and get hassled by people passing out candy because they don't (which then make the kid feel even worse).
Sadly, my district's kids know the harsh reality about holidays. They view all holidays as luxuries that only the privileged few can enjoy. Basically, if it's in a month not ending in 'december', then no one really cares about them. Valentine's Day, Easter, Birthdays? They think they'd have a better chance of getting a pink teddy bear from the Red Cross after their house goes up in flames then to get one for their Birthday or Valentine's Day.
When kids start telling you; "I ain't getting candy from the Easter Bunny because the dude doesn't have the hook-up with the Salvation Army" or "I don't celebrate Halloween because you can't buy a costume with welfare money" then you know you have a problem.
I'm sorry for depressing you guys on what it to be a fun holiday. I just kind-of needed to get that off my mind.
Well, I wish you a good November (I am, in 2 weeks, I'll be in Las Vegas).
And, next time you see a group trying to help kids out for Halloween... with anything, like a costume drive or volunteers wanted for community parties, don't forget 'em. Try to make all their holidays good, not just Christmas. :)