I can hardly wait for the annual Keene Central School Halloween parade. Then, after dark, I’ll join some friends on their porch, which is on the Keene Valley trick-or-treat route, to observe the little goblins and pass out candy. There are always some surprisingly creative and highly original get-ups.

What are the pundits’ predictions for most popular kids’ costumes this year? Beetlejuice, hot dog and baby hippo and, once again, Barbie and Spiderman, along with the traditional princess, witch and ghost.

There used to be a lot more ghosts. It was always a fine sight to see eery, wind-blown, bedsheet-clad apparitions fleeing across dark streets on beggars’ night, like as not tripping because the sheet was too long. Also, the eye holes would never stay in place. I attribute the decrease in ghost costumes to the increase of colorful patterned bed linens. Over time, as fewer and fewer white sheets were purchased, the supply of potential ghost costumes gradually dwindled. White sheets are a rarity these days.

Do you believe in ghosts? It is my theory that everyone believes in ghosts in the middle of the night or in the wee hours of the morning, reason notwithstanding.

By the way, the expression “Giving Up the Ghost,” aside from being the title of an excellent memoir by Hilary Mantel, comes from the King James Bible (and from the Coverdale Bible before that). There were several mentions in the Old Testament, as in Genesis 25:8, when “Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.” In Luke 23:46, “when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.”

When my granddaughter, Emma, was 2 years old, I made her a flower fairy costume with considerable help from my friend Shirley, a far better seamstress than I am. My daughter had told me — and other young mothers I spoke with concurred — that the toddler girl Halloween costumes on the market were slutty.

What?

Yes, they said.

I had heard that there was a bumblebee outfit on Amazon. The bumblebee sounds cute, I said.

It’s a slutty bumblebee, a young mom sternly informed me.

Now, when I was a girl …

The children will be out relatively early, as sunset will be at 5:45 p.m. on Oct. 31. Daylight saving time starts Sunday, Nov. 3, at 2 a.m., when we go back to standard time; it will darker in the morning, light for a little longer in the evening.

Until such time as we are utterly swallowed up in the darkness of winter cold and desolation. But never mind that now.

Children in the suburb where I grew up used to wail “Help the pooor! “ as we held open our paper bags outside our neighbors’ front doors. None of us was poor, and we were after candy, although we would not scorn the occasional nickel or dime. Apples and pennies we regarded with contempt.

Children used to dress as cowboys because we were raised on westerns — western movies, and later, westerns on television.

I wore a cowgirl outfit, complete with a six-gun holstered on each hip, to kindergarten. Those must have been great years for the girls who loved horses. I didn’t care much about horses one way or the other, but I did like cowboys. Probably this is the reason my mother and my older brother both saw fit, individually, to give me copies of Pam Houston’s excellent collection of short stories, “Cowboys Are My Weakness,” one Christmas after I was grown up.

Every year, there are still kids who dress up as Superman. I watched “The Adventures of Superman,” starring George Reeves, a television show every week as a child. Superman never shoots anybody. Yes, sometimes accidents happen to the bad guys, but they started it!

It strikes me now that Superman, with or without his Clark Kent disguise, devotes most of his superpowers to helping out Lois Lane at the Daily Planet. Who knows, maybe Superman was an early influence on my desire to become a journalist.

Just think, by the time you’re sitting around the table at Thanksgiving you’ll know who the next president will be, and you can discuss the subject with your extended family. Memorize some talking points now to avoid fisticuffs.

Have a happy Halloween.

(Martha Allen, of Keene Valley, has been writing for the News since 1996.)