Halloweenie
Ah, Halloween. My second favourite holiday when I was a kid, turned favourite holiday in University, turned second least favourite holiday after having kids.
To get even with society, I went from dressing up as a sexy kitten/mouse/slut-on-wheels (I once wore roller skates with a black slip and fishnet stockings to a party - very awkward for dancing) to dressing up as my Mother, my husband's Mother-in-Law, my kids' distant Grandmother. I focused on her early-70s high school librarian look (as in - 1970s). Mostly because I had in my possession, one of her two wigs from that era. Medium brown, medium curls - totally and frighteningly unnatural looking. It screamed FEMINIST BALL BUSTER!!! even in Halloween lighting.
Today, I'm not dressed up - although I did reflect on my Forum - www.sooeys.com - that I could go as "upside-down-red-turban-girl" on account of I bought a grey skirt and two red sweaters at the Sally Ann yesterday. My idea is to wear the skirt on top, one of the sweaters on bottom, and the other sweater wrapped around my head. A little over-applied lipstick, my drugstore reading glasses worn ascew (sic?) - and Voila! I'll be all set to give out candy at our office - which is in a house and which has more little kids dropping by than does my apartment - which has none.
And speaking of kids, as soon as mine weren't... too little - as in, the last one was in school - they went out Trick or Treating around the townhouse/condo development near our house. ALONE. THREE KIDS. ALONE. Filling their little plastic "Halloween Cat" bags with candy. One trip around the condos and the bags were full. Which worked well because my kids could make three chocolate bars last a year. And if there's one thing I can't stand, it's Halloween candy left over from last Halloween being added to this year's haul.
Heavens! I can only steal so much of their candy before I get a canker! Bratty kids...
Meanwhile, updating things a few years - I was just at a bookclub night (we reviewed "The Mermaid Chair" - stock "Ya Ya Sisterhood" female characters, stock "Harlequin" dialoge, unbelievably well written passages detailing the emotions felt by the husband and lover - both - as the main character had an affair/attempted to leave her marriage) and one of our members said, "Should I let my son Trick or Treat alone this Halloween?"
"How old is he, now?" I asked (thinking... hm... he's STILL going out for Halloween...?)
"He's 12", she replied (straight-faced).
Okay. I know. Weird. But what's weirder is that another member actually said, "Well, I don't know. Is he going with more than one friend? Because I won't let my son go out without his Dad keeping watch unless he goes with TWO friends. Just one friend isn't enough."
Granted, this is out in the 'burbs where all the paedophiles lurk, but still. 12?! I'd worry more that my son would start fantasizing about killing the old man so he wouldn't be trailing him around to Halloween frat parties while he's at University than that he was going to be lured into a passing car by a stranger offering actual chocolate bars - as opposed to the mini ones everybody hands out every year.
Uh... if you're a paedophile, you didn't get that "actual chocolate bars" tip from me...
I mean, I hate to be one of those "back in my day" tail-end boomers, but - GEEZ LOUISE!! Back in my day, as soon as you were in Kindergarten - you were on your own come Halloween. If that meant you didn't dare go past the neighbours on each side for fear of big kids stealing your candy - so be it. Pretty much the last thing anyone expected to see was someone's Dad standing on the corner while some kid Trick or Treated. In fact, I bet such a Dad would have been beaten to death by the other Dads - just on principle. Maybe even by the neighbourhood Moms. Who knows?
He certainly wouldn't have been invited to drive over sometime for a few drinks, that much is for sure. And I doubt any of the neighbourhood dads would have sent his kid out with us to the corner store to buy smokes, either.
But nowadays, the Dads hanging back at the sidewalk while their sons and daughters (and I've had girls as old as, I dunno, 35?! - dressed as Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera Trick or Treating at my door with their Dads - at least, I *think* they're their Dads - hanging back at the sidewalk) Trick or Treat are as common a sight as ghosts and witches and Jasons.
I dunno. Our kids are gonna have some pretty warped memories of Halloween, if you ask me.
Hilariously, they'll probably be of their Dads hanging back at the sidewalk while they Trick or Treated their way through high school...
