Halloween

I tell ya, Halloween was one of the holidays I really looked forward to when I was younger. I think what I found most exciting about it was the trick or treating. My earliest memories are when my sister and I would go around town trick or treating. But then she got too old for it and then my dad took me. Not long afterwards, my best friend Brian and I went together (his mother drove). It was that way until we both became too old for it. The 6th grade was the last year I went trick or treating (that year I was rather hesitant to go, but my sister's boyfriend at the time basically dragged me out, for whatever reason).

I don't know what it is, but when you reach a certain age (11 or 12 it seems), you feel you're too old to dress up and go trick or treating. I don't know if we're in a hurry to grow up, feel embarassed about having friends see us, or we're just letting the tweenage angst get to us; whatever it is, we just don't go anymore. And some of it has to do with how it's portrayed on TV and the influence of friends. I know back at that age, I remember hearing many kids saying they were too old to dress up (and sadly, some were already getting involved with alcohal and having their own parties). It's just one of those things I guess; no kid can really ever avoid it.

Probably some of my all-time favorite costumes were a ghost (complete with white make-up covering my entire face), a pirate (way before the Pirates of the Caribbean movies), and a firefighter (complete with a real fire-house and nozzle, fireman's helmet, rain coat, and various other gear). For some reason I can't really remember any other characters I became during Halloween. I guess they weren't really all that memorable and have became easily forgotten. And it wasn't just about the trick or treating, either. It was also about picking out your costume, carrying it with you to school, dressing up and seeing all of your friends in different costumes as well. Last year I wrote a blog on how we all dressed up (in elementary) and paraded throughout the school showing off all our costumes to the big kids. Then we would have our Halloween parties in our classrooms, complete with candy, other goodies, games, and music. There was nothing like Halloween at school. Everything about the day just seemed so abnormal and you knew it was anything but a normal school day. Then once school was let out, we all knew it wouldn't be long before we'd get to go trick or treating.

I plan on writing more regarding some of my favorite trick or treating memories tomorrow in Part 2 of my annual Halloween blog. Stay tuned! :-)