Culture: Halloween in Roundhouse Park

The steam-powered miniature train at the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre in Toronto, Ontario prepared to leave Don Station past a giant pumpkin on Halloween, 31-October-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Amongst the changing social expectations of suburbia in the 1990's, it was possible to put out a Jack o'Lantern and even decorate one's house and still have few or no local trick-or-treaters stop by, in particular if the weather was unseasonably cold or wet. On the other hand, one could simply leave the porch light on and get dozens of costumed youngsters. Therefore, it was not entirely predictable how many children would come to Roundhouse Park in Toronto, Ontario for a scary, after-dark train ride and treats.


The windows of Don Station in Toronto, Ontario were decorated with scary Halloween imagery on 31-October-2010

The Toronto Railway Heritage Centre was not going to be caught unprepared. Volunteer Bob Dickson led an extensive decoration of Roundhouse Park with holiday decorations. Halloween-themed music videos played inside Don Station, pumpkins of various sizes appeared along the tracks of the miniature railway, and a graveyard suddenly appeared in a desolate portion of the park.


A dancing skeleton entertained a child at Don Station in Toronto, Ontario on Halloween, 31-October-2010

For a day that started with snow showers, visitors to the park provided a reasonable stream of business for the miniature railway. A few came in costume and enjoyed the displays around the station, including a dancing skeleton that sang Halloween-themed music whenever anyone passed nearby.


A diesel-powered miniature railway train ran through the "graveyard" in Roundhouse Park set up for Halloween on 31-October-2010

The steam engine came out for the evening in the late afternoon, with cool temperatures allowing it to more visibly emit steam through the park. A few more children arrived in costume around dinnertime. When darkness came, though, the flow had stopped. This would be one of those nights without trick-or-treaters.


The miniature railway train sat amongst the ghosts and goblins in the graveyard of Roundhouse Park in Toronto, Ontario on 31-October-2010.

So, the gathered volunteers went to a backup plan--turning the evening into a night photo session. The steam train was posed amongst the various Halloween displays and in front of the light show put on by the CN Tower, with special attention paid to the graveyard.


The miniature railway train itself looked like a translucent ghost, as a timed exposure captured its departure from Don Station in Toronto, Ontario on 31-October-2010

Next year, with more publicity and likely a different plan, the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre will probably be again prepared for Halloween. For more coverage of this year, watch the TRHA web site.

Culture: Trick-or-Treaters Here

TORONTO, ONTARIO - I still remember trick-or-treating in the neighborhood (there is no "u" in neighbourhood there) where I grew up. I remember having dinner and then setting out in the dark (no daylight savings time on the last day of October then) to ring the doorbell of every house with a Jack-O-Lantern displayed, which would be the vast majority of the homes. This was already an era of safety in trick-or-treating, so I don't recall ever being offered a candied apple (or any other fruit), just candy or maybe a granola bar if the household didn't want to contribute to cavities. If there was a choice, and there were Snickers bars, that would be my first choice. I was partial to the Mars-M&M line of candies in general at that age.

Often I would go alone, with my mother or father staying at the street as I went up a walkway to the house's door and just escorting me between houses, but a few years I went with friends. One year in particular was especially memorable, as a friend and I went through much of his large Surrey Downs neighborhood and probably had the largest haul of my lifetime. Then, some older teenagers on bicycles attacked us and made off with most of his candy. Because I was using a plastic bag, they couldn't get a good hold on my bag and I don't think I lost anything. Apparently in the dark, my friend didn't notice this and offered to give me some of his remaining candy. I just looked at him funny and muttered something about getting that backwards. When we got back to his house, he was so surprised that that he declined any portion of my candy, and I ended up with all of that huge loot after all.

In my high school years, safety became such a concern that trick-or-treaters vanished from the streets of Bellevue, Washington. I remember one night that my parents only received two rings at the door the entire evening. The lure of going to the mall, where one could safely go to all the stores looking for candy without worrying about walking around in the dark or teenagers on bicycles trying to steal their candy, had cleared the streets of the long-standing tradition.

Since moving to Toronto, I have never been home on Halloween evening. Either I was working so late that by the time I returned to my neighbourhood that I did not get home until children were home from trick-or-treating, or I have been out of town traveling. This year, though, I was around, and was surprised to find the sidewalks busy with trick-or-treaters. Furthermore, the costumes were all things I recognized--rabbits, pirates, ghosts, firemen, even a postal carrier. It was almost like going back in time twenty years. Halloween is still celebrated here.