No one should ever start a column with either of these two expressions: “When I was your age” and “Back in the day.” So even though I’m taking you into the past, I will begin by saying that once upon a time, Halloween belonged, rightly so, to children. It was the only holiday that belonged strictly to young’uns. All the other holidays included the grown-ups.

VINTAGE LOOK: A boxed Halloween costume from the author‘s youth is ‘flame retarded’ and features ‘saf-t-c eyeholes.’

You might be asking, “What about Christmas and Hanukkah?” Yes, those are child-centric, gifts-galore holidays, but there is much adult…