previous // October 31, 2003
// 7:23 a.m. // next
All it's done is rain lately. Cold, ugly, gray rain. It's having a profound effect on my mood. I don't feel like doing anything lately. Sitting around in jammies and playing solitaire is all that's appealing to me right now. Or maybe taking a really long nap, since all my energy seems to be disappearing on me.
But on the bright side, today's Halloween! I've been going over in my head all the costumes I've had since I can remember. The first costume I remember having was a vinyl tie-on Strawberry Shortcake, complete with really poofy hat. In all the pictures we have of me in it (I was 2 at the time) I look pissed off. I was under the impression that in order to wear costumes you had to shed your street clothes first. This only works if your costume isn't tie-on.
The next costume I remember, I was a Cabbage Patch kid. I hated the smell of the mask. And I remember thinking it didn't look anything like my Cabbage Patch dolls, so I was a little skeptical that it was the real thing. And, again, it was one of those vinyl tie-on deals. I was maybe 4 for this one, so I was hip to the fact it was tie-on.
Here's where my memory gets a little blurry. I can't remember if I was the ballerina in Pre-K and the butterfly in Kindergarten or if it was the other way around. I think I have it in the right order. For years after I was the ballerina, all that survived of the costume was the tiara and the tuu tuu, which I thought was itchy as hell but would forget and put it on only to remember I hated it. The butterfly mask survived for a long, long time, even after the strap broke and I stapled it back together. I think it finally got pitched when I was in 4th grade.
First grade I was a pumpkin. Don't remember second grade, but I might have been She-Ra, Princess of Power that year. I know I was She-Ra (I have the hilarious pictures to prove it), I just don't know when. All I can come up with is 198-something. Third grade was the gypsy, and it was rainy and cold that year, too, and it was really unpleasant being outside in that skimpy lil costume. I was a 60s girl in fourth and my babysitter made a beatuiful huge pink poodle skirt that she let me borrow.
I don't remember fifth. I was a mime in sixth, the year I dropped my desk on my toe -- don't ask -- and my gym teacher wouldn't let me sit out even though my toe was purple cuz I didn't have a doctor's note even though the accident happened that morning. Seventh I was a fortune teller, complete with big hoop earrings and Magic 8 Ball-cum-crystal ball, but everyone thought I was a gypsy. I was a reluctant mouse in eighth; I was embarrassed to pin the tail on and wear the ears, so really all I had on was a sparkly tie.
I don't remember fraushy year of high school. Sophomore year through senior year of high school I did the goth thing, and not always just for Halloween. But that's an issue for another time.
Costumes in college have been interesting to say the least. I did the goth thing again fraushy year. I was Wes Borland (formerly of Limp Bizkit) my sophomore year. I don't know what I was my junior and senior years, but I painted my face and wore my black feather boa (but only when handing out candy, not at school).
This year, I've gone back to traditional costumes. I've actually had it since September and was inspired by my Renaissance Lit class, of all things. I'm going to be a Medieval Queen. Check out my costume here, though I saved a ton and bought mine at Walmart. I've been antsy to wear it ever since I bought it. I'm gonna look so awesome! I'll post pictures next week of my super awesome self in my too cute costume.
My parents and I have been eating the candy I bought for Trick or Treaters all week. It's really hard to just walk by the bags of Hershey Minis and Twix bars and Blow Pops (that I can't have because of my braces) without stopping to take something. When I was little, till I was in fourth grade, we lived out in the sticks and up on this hill where there were only 5 houses at the top. I only went to 2 (one being my own, of course) and came home with twice the candy my friends did. I was the only kid that went to those houses, even when my friend Vicky and her family lived in the trailer across the street.
I'd start usually with Katie and Grace, who lived in the big white house across the street. Katie would meet mom and I on the sun porch with a small grocery bag usually used for half gallons of ice cream, and it would be bursting with candy. Katie would be inside in the dining room and sometimes mom and I would go in and the three women would talk for a bit before we left.
If I didn't start there, I would start next door at Kennie and Olie's (pronounced Oh-lee). They were like surrogate grandparents for me, and I was a surrogate granddaughter since they never had children of their own. They doted on me from the very beginning. I remember going in to their kitchen and Olie would have those little treat bags nicely filled and arranged on a large baking sheet on her kitchen table. I always had my pick of how many I wanted with the invite to come over any time I wanted (which I did a lot anyway, much to mom's disapproval sometimes) and take more.
When I'd get home, I'd take the top of a tv tray and set it in the middle of the living room floor and dump out my mountain of candy. In all the years we have lived in town, we have never bought even a tenth of what I'd get just going to those 2 houses when I was little. It'd be the middle of November and I'd still have Halloween candy left. First thing I'd do was separate out all the stuff I didn't like and give those to my parents, and then put all the like candy together -- M&M's with M&M's, Snickers with Snickers, lollipops with lollipops, and so on. My friends were always jealous that I had so much from just going to two houses, since most people only give out a piece or two and most kids go to more than just two houses. I was the only kid to go trick or treating up on the hill, so I got all I could carry.
I miss those Halloweens. Not so much for the candy (okay, maybe a little for the candy) but to dress up like that and show off for the neighbors. I tried the trick or treat thing when we moved into town, but it just wasn't the same, especially the year I got a note pad and a tiny little pencil with no eraser from this one woman who wouldn't even give it to me and my friends unless we specifically said "trick or treat".
Now I like handing the candy out and seeing all the little ones out for the first time. I accidentally scared this one little girl the year I was Wes. My make up was just too much for her I suppose (I had my face painted to look like a skeleton, one of Wes' usual costumes) and she wouldn't come up on the porch. I think of her now every year and hope I didn't scar her for life. The ones that bug me are the older kids, some of whom don't even try. And when the night starts winding down we start to get the out-of-towners that actually come in from neighboring hillbilly towns by the station wagon-ful, because going door-to-door in their own towns just isn't enough. That's when the porch light goes out and I start praying my car doesn't get egged.
Happy Halloween!
Thanks for reading,
Ter
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