Sooo...now that it's over. LOL
I'm sure that you can tell that Halloween is not really my favorite of all the holidays, although I'm absolutely intrigued by aspects of it. I think my liking for it has been tainted by too many people that I care about. I've had one too many views of it drilled into my head over the years. Therefore, like anything else in my life, I've decided to take the sugar and leave the shit. Literally.
Let's start with my very first memory of this particular holiday.
My sister, Tory and I were Care Bears in Catholic school. I'm talking back when costumes were pretty much the same for all kids. You know, a mask with an elastic string and basically a plastic body cape that probably tied in the back somehow. The one that made you feel like you were slightly suffocating. The reward was that you got C A N D Y and lots of it in a bag of your own. Then, I remember being Raggedy Anne for two years in a row. Tory got creative and went as Madonna back when "Borderline" was hot. The good old 80's. One of our babysitters dressed her up as I sat in my hot ass plastic bag with my mask perched on top of my cornrows. I wanted a cool costume that wouldn't make me sweat even though all Tory had by way of makeup was Vaseline. Yes, Vaseline blush, eye shadow and lipstick with a wild side pony and teased bangs. West Indian people don't believe in children looking too grown and we were both under the age of 8. That was the year that we went from store to store in the Bronx, hand in hand with our babysitters, Donna and Audrey while our mom was at work.
We lived off an avenue that had an elevated train and someone thought it would be fun to open bags of flour from the train platform above directly onto all of the little kids and guardians below. Poor Tory was now a white Madonna and I was now a powdery white Raggedy Anne. All the kids cried and were escorted home. The T R I C K was successful.
This was also one of the years when in New York (and possibly other states) some wild maniac started putting razor blades in candy. My little mind would wonder who in the hell would do such a thing to kids. You know what that meant, any candy that wasn't tightly wrapped went in the trash. Halloween proceeded to suck. On top of that my grandmother, a devout Christian warned my mother from letting us dress up anymore. She still let us do it, by then my brother, Alex was old enough to join in the festivities. I mainly only remember doing school things at that point. Door to door in New York City was out.
By the time we moved to California, a few years later, my mom seemed more rooted in religion and Halloween was out completely. Until the year she worked on October 31st. That was the year that my brother, sister and 15 year old Jas hatched a plan to make our own costumes, go trick or treating and share the loot that we'd stash somewhere in the garage. It was so huge we had to put it all in a black Hefty trash bag.
Halloween in California was an experience. It was the difference between Great Adventures and Disney Land. All the houses were decked out with different themes. Some even turned their homes into haunted houses! I was amazed and in love with the creativity.
The costumes were next level. My homemade ballerina costume was sub par. Yet, I was only there for the exhilaration and the loot. Let me tell you that I wasn't disappointed one bit. I got so much good candy, that I made two rounds. The thing that stopped me, was a parent who remembered that I was there before. I think I broke a Halloween rule with that move. She told me that I was getting too old to trick or treat. Maybe next year I should just hand out candy she suggested sarcastically. That was the end of it for me. The following year, I took a couple of kids that I babysat door to door and let me tell you, the experience is quite different as a parent. Especially if the kids are not actually your own. My patience was thin.
Fast forward to marriage and my own child and this spooky holiday. Welp, Sir is a non practicing Jehovah's Witness so for many years that meant front lights out at our house with a polite sign on the door. NO CANDY HERE. This slightly saddened me. I was that house. I always wondered who lived in the homes that didn't hand out candy. Me, that's who. smh
Although I wasn't big on participating in it, I also felt a way about my son being left out. Luckily, he went to a school that didn't allow children to wear costumes during the school day, but they did have a parade and a party. I let him be a part of that, but he never got dressed up. He just admired his friends' costumes. Sometimes they'd share and allow him to wear their mask or hat. He seemed satisfied with just that after a while. Around that time, I wanted to speed right past Halloween. I'd buy him a bag of candy that I compiled (even though he doesn't really like candy) and we'd watch a not so scary movie at home.
Since we've moved back to the city six years ago, and my son now has the option of dressing up, he opts not to. I'm alright with that. We are Thanksgiving and Christmas people anyway.
Don't let me stop you from posting your pictures of clever costumes though. I still like to see all of that.
Love,
JAS