During my childhood in the 1990s, one national holiday activity that I didn’t get to participate in for a while was “Trick-Or-Treating”. Simply put, we didn’t live in a neighborhood that was deemed “safe” for such activity like going to a bunch of strangers’ homes and asking for free candy.
Fortunately, we learned that the somewhat-nearby Lakewood Mall in beautiful Lakewood, CA provided a safe and well-lit environment for families to go Trick-Or-Treating. So it was there that we had our first Trick-Or-Treating experience as we went around to each participating stores, one after the other, and got our free candies or other treat item like stickers and such. I think my costume was a simple “Jason” mask that we bought at the nearby mom-and-pop discount store. If I remember correctly, it glowed in the dark, which was a big deal to me at the time as I thought it was quite awesome!
Journeys, the shoe store company that is quite a staple at many shopping malls around the country, was one of those participating businesses. What they gave out is what I have pictured above; these cool promotional “hi-five” stickers.
They had many designs and the ones I have illustrated here is just a small example of the styles they gave out. I’m not sure what I did with the others I had gotten, but I’m sure glad that I kept these around as I still think they’re still awesome.
I do not know if they still have these stickers available or if Lakewood Mall still provides the “Trick-Or-Treating” event in their mall, but I sure do hope so (provided the current pandemic is over with and everything will be deemed safe again). I will never forget how much of an importance and meaningful these seemingly little things meant to us growing up.