A hobo, Raggedy Ann, Casper, and a two-headed monster; those were some of the costumes I wore as a kid to trick-or-treat in. The two-headed monster I will never forget and don't recommend, not even to the best of friends and especially not to married couples! What a disaster that would be: one of the heads would definitely end up sleeping on the couch by the end of the evening. My sister and I did the two-headed monster when I was in junior high and we fought all night about who wasn't keeping step, who stepped on whose toes, who was walking too fast, who was walking too slow; you get the picture. And our mother! What was she thinking - letting us attempt that in the first place?! She deserved to hear every bit of bickering that went on between my sister and I that night. Yeah! It was her fault. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!Halloween is a favorite holiday among many kids from 1 to 92, mine included, second only to Christmas. What is it about this holiday that gets kids, and even some grown-ups so excited? Is it the candy? I mean, you can buy candy at any store, any time of year, so what makes it so special on October 31st? I guess part of the excitement of candy on the hallowed night is that you get it in such large quantities and it's all for you! Well, what's left of it that is, after the parents rummage through it taking out what they deem "unsafe" for one reason or another: homemade treat, could be drugged; and we all know about the dangers of apples and razor blades, right? And then there's the candy that's just unsafe, well, because let's face it, it's our favorite kind (yes, I am talking about us parents) and we couldn't possibly subject our children to the dangers of what might be lurking in that kind of candy so, oh look! There's a tiny hole in the wrapper of that one. And that one looks a little suspicious too - a bit smashed, they might have been tampered with; better take those out for safety reasons. (Little do they know that we munch on these delightful tidbits later on whilst they slumber. But, what's a few pieces out of a thousand, right? And what they don't know can't hurt them. And we're thinking of their overall health. Too much candy is not good for those growing bodies, not to mention their teeth. Yeah, that will justify it. Keep munching!)
Decorations have become much more elaborate for Halloween than they used to be. I remember when I was a kid, we were lucky if we hung some paper decorations on the front door. Now we walk by yards with fog machines, lawns of graveyards made with store-bought tombstones, black-lights, shrubbery covered in fake cobwebs, talking skeletons hanging from trees, and even DJs out on the street with karaoke for the kids to sing for their candy! It used to be if you turned your porch light on, it meant you were open for business. Now if you don't have at least one Mr. Skullybones somewhere on your front lawn, people pass on by. Apparently, if you can't afford or bother to put a couple of tombstones out there, then your candy must not be worth the effort of walking all the way to the front door for!
Maybe what really makes Halloween so special is the costumes. Though I will admit that there are a few teens that come to my door who don't even bother to put forth even a tiny bit of effort and just show up as themselves. They hold out a pillowcase for candy, barely mumbling the words "trick-or-treat", and expect me to reward them for this lack of imagination. On the other hand, if I don't give them anything, I may find my house egged or toilet-papered the next morning, right? But really, I should be the one toilet-papering them for not putting on a costume if they are going to have the nerve to go around asking the neighbors for free candy! At least then they'd have costumes. They would all look like mummies!
I dress up every year, whether I am the one at home handing out the candy each time the door bell rings or the one walking the neighborhood with the kids as they go door-to-door. Not only is it a bit of fun for me, but it shows the kids that no matter how old I am (so far) I still have a sense of humor and can have fun with them too. Of course, sometimes my kids don't quite appreciate my sense of humor or costume style. They all want to go for the glitz and glamour of the fancy costume shop outfits. I, on the other hand, appreciate the thought behind the costume. For example, one year in college I dressed all in green, made the letter "P" on my shirt with masking tape and used black eyeliner to give myself a big shiner and went as a - (have you guessed it yet) black-eyed pea! Another year, right after my husband and I were married, we threw a Halloween party and the theme was a play on words. I was "Holy Cow!". I took a white sweat suit, cut out and glued on black spots all over it and wore a wing and halo set that I bought at the store. Coming up with the idea is as much of the fun for me as wearing the outfit itself. Sadly, this concept has gotten lost on my children. When I suggest costume ideas like serial killer to them where they cut the fronts off of their cereal boxes and pin it to their clothes, carry a plastic ax and put on some scary face paint, they give me that look like the orderlies in movies do right before they are ready to put the patient into the straight jacket! Alas! I guess I will get to use all the good ideas on myself.
This year, I added some sarcasm into my costume. My husband Brad appreciated my costume immensely. We both laughed out loud, heartily, I might add, when we saw the children's expression at my outfit this year. I decided to go as a referee. The sarcasm was not lost on our children and though they tried to hide it, snickering was heard and mouths were covered to hide smiles. They got the joke, even if it was on them. I found the outfit quite appropriate as I have had to play that role during several tiffs recently between my children and the many neighborhood children that almost live at our house from time to time. (The neighbor kids are over here so often that it really gets to be like a bit of sibling rivalry at times.) I got the shirt, the hat, even the whistle. Ah! The whistle! I reminded my kids of the movie "Kindergarten Cop" when Arnold Schwarzenegger gets the whistle out to get the class of unruly five-year-olds under control and my eyes gleemed as the whistle glistened in the afternoon light. I even broke into my best Arnold impression. That really had them laughing. I told them I was already getting ideas of how this whistle might come in handy. The power! Think of it: A lifeguard whistles and everyone stops and listens or gets out of the pool, a referee at a game whistles and everyone stops to listen to what he has to say. Now I, Gianna, aka Mommy, have a whistle of my very own. They shuddered at the thought. I told them how I chose my costume this year based on what I have had to do so much of in recent weeks and I thought I would just go with it. And now that I have the tools on hand, I might just pull them out and use them once in awhile. I wonder if it would be too much to learn and use the hand signals too?
