Halloween in Ireland

Halloween in Ireland is not exactly as i remember it when i was a lad. It has become very commercial and people spend a lot of money on decorations and all kinds of attire for the children nowadays that we never had. We would paint our faces with whatever we could lay our hands on...usually soot, and maybe lipstick, and we would dress up in whatever adult clothing we could find and try to look scary. We went door to door and very rarely were given money. We would be given fruit and nuts and maybe sweets sometimes. These days all the kids want is money as they have all the other things at home already. We would sing a couple of songs at the doors, and people would make sure that we did, or we would not be given anything. Later we would gather in our own homes and play all sorts of games, diving for apples was one of the favourites. I can remember cracking the nuts with my teeth, something we would all do in those days as you would be a real swank if you had a nutcracker in your home.. not to be recommended i would think, but maybe we had better teeth in those times as we did not get as much sugar or sweets to rot our teeth. I think my favourite nuts were the hazelnuts....i loved them. I also liked the Brazil nuts but we rarely got them. We would also have oranges, and the oranges in those days seemed to be huge. They were the Jaffa oranges and i can remember how big they were and how thick the skins were on them. They were delicious and a real treat as we did not get them very often. The same applied to sweets....you would be lucky to get sweets on a Sunday and when you did get them you really appreciated them. Nowadays if you bring a child into a shop you have such a selection of sweets on display it is hard to understand how they still find it hard to find something that they like. They turn their noses up at most of them..."I dont like them" and...."I dont like them". Spoiled is the word. I can remember when i was in secondary school (high school) i was a day pupil and the resident boarders used to get me to smuggle in sweets for them when they had money to buy them. There was no shop in the school in those days and you would be punished if you were caught with sweets. What a terrible crime. The criminals were the authorities with their sad minds. I felt like Dick Turpin helping the poor and i would do it with a heart and a half. I bought so many from my local shop they would give me extra sweets so i would have a few for myself.
The weather has turned wild and wet but not cold and i am hoping that we might still get some more clement weather before the winter sets in. Our clocks went back last weekend so now we have darkness descending by 18:00 hrs and it really does give you that winter feeling. The extra hour of daylight that we now have in the morning is a help though.
I do not have any major travelling this week as of yet but i do have a lot of programs to work on for clients and there are other things around the place to be done now that i have more home time. I am here if anybody wants me so drop me a line when you have time. Chauffeurdrive holidays in Ireland can be a pleasure at any time of the year. Talk to you again soon.