So, the Halloween season has got its bony grip on our street like whoa! And I am SO loving it. Halloween is one of my favorite times of year, though you probably wouldn’t think that of me since I don’t really go to many great lengths to celebrate.
Growing up, I dressed up just about every year, sometimes in homemade costumes like a court jester or a queen of hearts playing card, and sometimes a store bought costume. We lived on a busy street, so I usually had to travel to the next closest residential neighborhood to do my trick or treating, which wasn’t so bad. Since we lived on the busy street, we hardly got any trick or treaters, save some brave high school friends of my brother’s who considered themselves dressed up by swapping one another their G.L. Football jerseys and eyeblack, toting around ratty looking pillowcases.
In college, I dressed up at Princess Leia one year, but aside from that, I didn’t do much. Probably because there was school work to be done — yes, I am an overachiever, so what?! After college, I first lived in an apartment. I won’t say it was on the wrong side of the tracks, but there wasn’t much of the way of trick or treating going on. Once DH and I got married, it was more apartment living and I guess that just isn’t conducive to Halloween festivities. Post-apartment living found on another busy street, not once, but twice. The second time, the neighborhood was in transition (read: old folks moving out, but the young folks moving in don’t have kids), so nothing happened on yet another October 31st.
We did dress up together one year, when we went to a Halloween themed birthday party for a friend. I was a geisha and DH was Bruce Leroy — it was supposed to be a samurai costume, but something got lost in the translation and Bruce Leroy seemed more fitting. Anyway, the party was fun and I thought, “When we have kids (b/c this was pre-Mo), I am SO going to do it up on Halloween. I’m gonna have fake spiderwebs, skeletons coming out of the ground, weird music, tons of candy and of course, costumes!!”
Yeah, that didn’t happen. Our second house, on the second busy street, was the home that Mo came home to. By October of her first year, she was about 2 months old and Halloween wasn’t as big a priority as it once was. Still, I got her a pumpkin and decorated it, got her a matching hat to go with it, too. But once again, my quest for full on Halloween embodiment fell flat.
The following Halloween found us in an apartment, again cursed with the lack of seasonal festivities. I didn’t bother to get Mo a costume; I blacked her eye (with eyeliner! with eyeliner!), slapped a “P” on her onesie and made her a . . .wait for it. . ..black-eyed pea (no not Will.i.am or Fergie)! I loved it! She and my mother hated it. Next year, I told her, as much as I told myself, we’re going to do it differently. The following Halloween, Co was with us and she was just about a month old, lucky enough to get a pumpkin bib. Mo got a pumpkin shirt and a Happy Halloween playgroup to a pumpkin patch and farm. I was really slipping — this golden fleece of Happy Halloweendom was getting further and further away.
I blamed the apartment mostly. I mean, I just couldn’t get into it with the lack of square footage and the fact that our neighbors wouldn’t even spit on you if you were on fire, much less look at you. By the summer of ’08, we were gearing up for another move (you’d think we were in the Witness Protection Program with all this house hopping) and this time, in a house in a kid filled neighborhood. Paydirt!!
Fall has fallen and the wee ghosties are appearing in trees along the street. We got “Boo-ed” the other day, which was awesome! I promptly ran to Wal-Mart buying bags and bags of candy and see what else I could score. Clearly, I am asleep at the switch because Wal-Mart looked like zebra carcass after the lions had been at it for a while. I shouldn’t have been surprised — NPR reported that despite the economic downturn, Halloween sales are up this year from last year. Halloween is a multi-million dollar holiday.
In any event, the house isn’t decorated, nor is there a flag flying from the roof or a skeleton peeking up from the front yard, BUT Mo and Co both have their costumes, candy has been purchased in great quantities (and being consumed in even great quantities, because I have to make sure it’s palatable for the children!), neighbors have been “boo-ed” and a trip to the pumpkin patch is scheduled for the week-end. I even have “Thriller” on repeat on my iPod. Now, all that remains is a costume for me and I will consider this Halloween Season a considerable improvement over Halloweens past.
Victory is Mine!!
