My Turn: Times may change, but Halloween endures in Roslyn Heights

It was the middle of the 1960s. My husband and I, with our four children, had just moved from a small Queens apartment into a house in suburban Long Island. In addition to enough room for our large family, there was a backyard to play in, a luxury unknown in our apartment house.

South Park was a friendly neighborhood in Roslyn Heights with many other young families. The neighborhood was built on a tract of land that was subdivided into smaller lots. Each house was uniform in size and design, giving a feeling of harmony to the neighborhood. No one could feel superior (or inferior) because they lived in a larger (or smaller) house.

Imagine a home of our own with plenty of room for each child! But the real excitement was in discovering a whole neighborhood of like-minded young parents with lots of young children in tow. My children were delighted in being able to come and go without the permission or accompaniment of parents as they had to do when we lived in an apartment in the city.

One of the best parts for our children was having kids their age who lived nearby and who were always available for a game of stickball or marbles, or riding bikes or dressing dolls, or reading together or swimming in plastic backyard pools — or simply running around with the freedom to just be kids.

Yes, life was indeed simple for our young children in those days. They were not being closely watched over, or constantly hauled off to weekly lessons, meetings and other structured after-school events. They mostly made their own fun. The kids were kids, and their parents were parents, and most got together at the end of each day for dinner and perhaps to describe a new friend or an exciting adventure.

An annual event in South Park was (and still is) the Halloween Parade in late October. Each year, families gathered first at a designated street corner. At a signal, all walked together through South Park streets in clusters of parents and children, with little ones in strollers. The excitement was palpable. The final gathering place was Cherrytree Lane, which had a large grassy area adjacent to the fenced-off Long Island Rail Road tracks. Children of all sizes and ages were dressed in gay, colorful costumes, some bought from a store, others made at home.

My own children often wore homemade costumes, which I fashioned from crepe paper or other easily found materials.

Games, like a Hula Hoop contest and egg-on-a-spoon race, were arranged. Relay races made for some noisy fun. A cotton candy machine spun a web of pink cotton candy, and lots of other goodies were available.

Parents, grandparents and other adults met and greeted neighbors and sometimes made new friends — all while the kids had a memorably great time. To add to the excitement, there was often a fire engine from the local firehouse parked on the site. Real firefighters, in their high rubber boots, black suits and large black helmets, stood ready to help youngsters climb aboard the wondrous giant red vehicle.

Now, each year on Halloween Parade Day, some of us who still live in our South Park homes stand on our front porches with smiles on our wizened faces as we watch a new generation of South Parkers march by, just like our own children once did so long ago.

Nancy Fadem,

Roslyn Heights