Those years without Halloween

For today's (first?) Countdown to Halloween post, I thought I would give you a bunch of somewhat sad memories, those few years (thankfully they were not many) when I could not truly celebrate Halloween, or barely. I can even remember the specific years. 1994, when Halloween was on a Monday and I had a nine hours day in college. I got home very late and trick or treat was over. I did my homeworks, went to bed and that was it. Thankfully, I had a class on the supernatural in literature, so had read a few spooky tales in the previous weeks. Then there was also Halloween 1999, my first year in the UK. I carved no pumpkin, read no horror stories, on Halloween I watched The Exorcist in a fully crammed common room, which kind of spoiled my enjoyment of the film. People were laughing like it was a slapstick comedy. 2000 was not that great either: I spent the weeks before reading about it on the internet and trying to find horror stories to enjoy, then on the night I cannot remember what I did. But moving from childhood to teenage was probably the worst, when I stopped going for trick or treat and had not yet develop my reading program of horror stories (partially because I had little access to them at the time). Now in my forties, I think I enjoy Halloween the best I can. Not nearly as much as I'd want to, but as much as I can.