‘We’re still all kids’: Seniors dance down Halloween memory lane | CBC News
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The Regina Senior Citizens’ Centre on Winnipeg Street is usually filled with music and dance on a Friday afternoon. But one day a year it plays host to grim reapers, witches and skeletons waltzing.
CBC joined some of Regina’s older citizens on the dance floor for their annual Halloween dance. An accordion player dressed as a clown provided the tunes as dancers took a trip down Halloween memory lane.
“The kids having fun is what I like most. And everybody getting dressed up here. We’re still all kids,” said Celeste Rainbow, who came to the shindig dressed like a butterfly. That’s one of a handful of costumes she’s sporting this season.
She said seeing people dressed up at the senior citizens’ centre makes her feel closer to her friends there.
Rainbow isn’t alone. Gladys Brodniak also attends the centre’s weekly dances, and said the Halloween dance was particularly fun.
“I love this dance. I come every Wednesday and every Friday and it’s a great place. Everybody is so friendly. It’s unbelievable. It’s surprising how many did dress up. Of course, not me,” Brodniak said, preferring to be a spectator.
Meanwhile, Mary Dumencu and her date Don Seitz went to the Friday Halloween dance dressed like milk and cookies. Dumencu said her favourite part of Halloween is seeing the little ones.
“In my younger years, I had four little children and they could hardly wait to go out and I could hardly wait until they come home with the candy. I enjoyed it so much, so much,” said Dumencu, beaming in her chocolate chip cookie costume.
“At home, I used to make the children, the neighbours, jump up and down, dance, sing. And they’d get an extra treat.”
Some seniors at the dance said trick-or-treating is not what it used to be.
“When [I] first moved in about 1983/84, we had about 125 to 150 kids. And then things started slowing down, and then in the last few years it’s only 20 or 25,” said Seitz, the milk to Dumencu’s cookie.
He said many children are going to shopping centres to trick-or-treat now. Brodniak has noticed the shift as well.
“It seems that they’re all gathering in the malls now, so you don’t see very many trick-or-treaters,” she said.
Brodniak said she doesn’t think door-to-door trick-or-treating will make a comeback. She believes the culture has changed due to recent hard times. But she still loves to see children dressed up around Regina when she spots them.
Featured VideoThe Regina Senior Citizens’ Centre plays host to grim reapers, witches and skeletons waltzing.
Candace Alston, vice president of the board of directors for the Senior Citizens’ Centre, said she thinks Regina is in for a trick-or-treating comeback.
“The community that I live in didn’t see a lot of children for a lot of years. And now younger families are moving in and their kids are coming to Halloween to partake in the Halloween traditions,” she said.
Alston has noticed that the door-to-door tradition has changed, and is now more of a family outing.
“It isn’t just the kids out with the pillow case knocking on doors and begging for candies. It’s the families. You know, three children and two parents at the sidewalk trying to make sure everybody stays safe.”
While seniors at Friday’s dance were excited for children in Regina to get to take part in spooky festivities, it was clear that Halloween isn’t just for the kids. Some things you never grow out of.
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