HALLOWEEN ain’t what it used to be (Shutterstock).

October is the perfect time for people to change their appearance and pretend to be someone they aren’t.

Yes, there’s a double meaning in that, referring to how folks – and not all of them kids, by a long shot –  dress up as scary characters and also (on the political stage) seek to portray themselves as having character and to scare people …. into voting for them.

Halloween is almost upon us. At present kids are figuring out their costumes and adults are fretting over allergies and Red Dye #40.

Of course, each generation looks back on its salad days with fond remembrance and each new generation looks on the previous generation with thinly-veiled contempt, and notes all the mistakes their group will never ever make.

As a baby-boomer, I got caught up in many of the same rituals. I was Zorro, I was Superman and I think I may have even been a cowboy, although the evidence for that is thin. As an adult, I even went to a party as Kwan Chang Caine of the “Kung Fu” TV show, complete with bare feet and flute.

Kids traveled in packs, and therein was safety – allegedly. A kid whose parents sheep-dogged the pack was ridiculed as being some kind of mama’s boy or sissy.

Today, when youngsters knock on doors on Oct. 31 … well, most of them don’t. Between the objections of some people of faith – who regard it as devil worship – and the fears of some parents who think that their kids are just a biscuit away from being whisked away by Pennywise, the streets are no longer thronged with munchkins.

We often have a small mountain of leftover candy and we encourage the last few door-bell ringers to “take all you want,” to the silent horror of their parental personal protection detail which followed them for two blocks.

Oh, yes, the old days of Halloween are gone. I mean who even knows what “salad days” are? They’re certainly not on Nov. 1 and 2.