Sunday, October 31, 2010

Nevermore - or at least not for a while

I just got off the phone with a friend of mine -  a father of four who just walked in the door after taking his kids trick or treating. “It was mobbed out there,” he said. “Kids everywhere.” I asked what his kids’ costumes were, and he went down the list. When he told me that his youngest was Spider-Man, I was instantly transported back to East Eden Road in Hamburg, going door to door, asking for candy, and freezing because I didn’t want to wear a jacket and cover up my Spider-Man costume. The mask’s cheap, stretchy string was biting into my ears, and it felt like breaking the rules - to be out having such a good time on a school night. Halloween always seemed to fall on a school night. The holiday was such a big deal when I was young – the dressing up and the candy. My God, the candy. Now, I'm grown up, and the street Linda and I live on is too rural for trick or treaters. So, Halloween has become something of a non-holiday for us. We’ll watch Charlie Brown or The Shining, but there’s no excitement about October 31st’s arrival. That’s about to change, and I find that exciting. Tonight will be the last Halloween without a little costume and a bag of candy in our house.

19 days until baby.

3 comments:

  1. Even next year be careful of costumes and masks. Some little ones freak out at the sight! Our daughter was not sure about Halloween trick or treaters at the door and later was absolutely traumatized by a fabulous Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit lurking the aisles of Lord & Taylor.
    It took her a while before she was ready for dress-up.

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  2. We love that we can celebrate Halloween now too...back when we lived in a big neighborhood, we'd make our house all scary. Now, out here, we don't get any trick-or-treaters. But we still have the fun of taking ours out, this year an outhouse, a gypsy, and an FBI agent. I hope they'll always want to go! Happy anticipating everything! A.

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  3. Anne - now that you mention it, I just remembered that I was like that when I was little - not a fan of the mall Santa or scary costumes. We'll work our baby up - gently - to Peter Rabbit.

    Amy - we don't get any trick or treaters either, so our decorations are few. I'm looking forward to making a bigger deal for our kid.

    An outhouse? Really? I'd love to see a picture.

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