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I really appreciate the time and effort people put into holiday displays.  It is among the best-known in Twin Falls.  Homeowners must spend hours preparing (and later with takedowns) in order to entertain the neighborhood children.  The same home gets the full treatment for Christmas, and I believe that work starts not long after the current decorations come down.  The house is visible from Filer Avenue, West.

I was working on a political campaign several years ago in Michigan and was going door to door on behalf of my candidate, and I came across a similar house.  One with guillotines, gallows, and headstones.  The owners spent a couple of weeks setting it up, and they mapped it all out in advance.

Looking back to when I was a kid, I don’t recall anyone going to make the effort.  One year, my dad dressed a jack-o-lantern in a coat and placed a walkie-talkie inside.  It frightened some of the little kids and otherwise sounded like a lot of static.  The “boo factor” was lacking.

Halloween often gets a bad rap.  Some people believe it’s too pagan or a waste of time and money.  No, I disagree.  In this day and age, our children are facing a very uncertain future.  Much of the news is already grim.  If one night of the year, they can dress up and satisfy a sweet tooth, then I’m all for it.

Perhaps my finest memory of the holiday was second grade.  I had chickenpox and was housebound.  My sister took a second bucket and told the people at every door that I was ailing at home.  Let me just say, the neighbors responded with charity (and my dentist thanked them!)

LOOK: How Halloween has changed in the past 100 years

Stacker compiled a list of ways that Halloween has changed over the last 100 years, from how we celebrate it on the day to the costumes we wear trick-or-treating. We’ve included events, inventions, and trends that changed the ways that Halloween was celebrated over time. Many of these traditions were phased out over time. But just like fake blood in a carpet, every bit of Halloween’s history left an impression we can see traces of today.

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