Halloween brings back great childhood memories for me, including home made costumes, parades at school, the phrase "... I got a rock", and a local legend that would visit our front porch every October 31st. All of this while growing up in an era in which the terms 'Candy', 'X-Ray' and 'Razor Blade' would never be used in a sentence, and the open home of an elderly couple with a decorated table and home-made cookies would not risk being shutdown by child protective services.
My mother, something of a 'wiz' with a sewing machine, had made a very elaborate and detailed set of costumes, with which we won many a contest over the years. That's me in the 'Lion' costume and my brother is the 'Scarecrow', as we walk in the annual school costume parade.
My father, being a ham radio-geek and technology buff, established something in our neighborhood that became an annual event, bringing visitors from surrounding cities to form a line on our block leading up to our door step, where children would excitedly engage in a brief chat with 'The Talking Pumpkin'. My father was ahead of the 'wireless' era, and using some radio equipment, a wireless microphone, and a large speaker placed under a cloth covered chair upon which the talking pumpkin would sit, greet and chat briefly with each visitor. He'd actually be standing across the street and one house over, where he'd be relatively unobserved, but still able to make out the costumes of each visitor. It became a yearly effort, the little kids loved it, and the crowds increased yearly until we left for Pennsylvania. I suspect that following year was a disappointing Halloween for the residence of Woodland Hills who made the trek to see it in 1969, but it was the start of an exciting tradition for the townsfolk of Lewisburg :-)