5 Minutes: Halloween memories

The next writing prompt for Your Life in 5 Minutes is this:

What is one of your best Halloween memories: a costume? trick-or-treating? gorging on candy? parties? carving pumpkins?

Obviously, I'm behind schedule here. That's okay. This isn't for you, it's for me.

I love Halloween. It's such a fun holiday. It's just very childlike and it's a great excuse to be silly again. But the memories I have of childhood Halloweens aren't the most positive. I'm a little bitter, to be honest. I never got to have the door-to-door trick-or-treating experience. I guess our little city wasn't necessarily the safest, but I think my mom was a little over-protective about the tradition. When I did go trick-or-treating, she would drive me around to people we knew, I'd get out of the car, run up to the door, and then come back to the car. As a parent now, I can understand the concern, but it was pretty lame at the time.

In sixth grade, I was invited to a Halloween party by a friend at school. (It was a really big deal to me, because I was typically a bullied kid, and didn't have friends. This particular girl, and her twin brother, had transferred to my school just for the last year, and they had a Halloween party every year. That year was no different...the invited all their friends from the old school, and were each allowed to invite two friends only from the new school. I was one of those. You can't imagine how excited I was.) There was food, a costume contest, a pumpkin carving contest, and the part I was most excited about: door-to-door trick-or-treating in their neighborhood! I didn't care about any of the rest of the activities. It was a surreal experience for me to finally get to do it the traditional way. Their parents followed along behind our group, and I dutifully didn't eat any of the candy until I got home and my mom could inspect it (which I did for my own daughter this year), but it was so exciting for me.

The other thing I wasn't crazy about as a kid was that once my sister was born, my mom often coordinated our costumes -- Peter Pan (me) and Tinkerbell (her). Bo Peep (me) and her sheep (her). It's not that I didn't like the costumes, just that I didn't get to choose them myself. But I will admit, I had pretty awesome costumes in general. Several of them were mom-made, and she always did a good job. Even those that weren't mom-made (like Bo Peep) were great outfits. And I can't say that I might not do the same thing in my own family. I have a friend who does family themes with their costumes. Three years ago, they dressed as a 50's family -- him in a white t-shirt and tight jeans, with greased hair, her in a poodle skirt and ponytail, and the baby in a similar skirt. Two years ago, she dressed as the Cowardly Lion, her husband was the Tin Man, her mom (who was in town visiting) was Glinda, her stepdad was the Scarecrow, and her little girl was Dorothy. It was really cute. Last year, they did Alice in Wonderland. My friend was the Queen of Hearts, her husband the Mad Hatter, their older daughter was Alice, and the new baby was the White Rabbit. I like the family theme, but Ben is a little humbug-y for it, I think.

Anyway, here are some fun blast-from-the-past Halloween pictures. My parents and sister will probably be mad at me for posting them, because they're in some of them, but oh well.

First up, Halloween 1985. That's my mom on the left, and my dad on the right. My mom had helped make costumes for the big LDS dance festival in LA that year, and she had leftover fabric from it. A lot of striped polyester.

Here's a little closer up on me:

Now on to 1986. My mom made this dress. I actually really love it. I hope I can put it on Julie in a few years.



And now, 1988. My sister's first Halloween. Yeah, she's pretty much going to kill me for the rest of these photos.

1990. I did a Girl Scout Halloween party this year (or the next one?) in this costume, and everyone thought I was Robin Hood. I guess I just needed my Tinkerbell with me.

Finally, 1991. I'm not particularly fond of this one, but it's a nice costume. Candice and I went together well.

One costume I couldn't find a picture of (I think it must have been after my mom stopped doing my scrapbooks) was Snow White. I didn't like it because it was a great costume or because I love Snow White (she's actually probably my least favorite Disney princess), but because I have fun memories of that year. My great-aunt always threw a huge Halloween bash at her house every year, but it was always more "mature" -- definitely not for kids. One year, my aunt got married, and decided to have a theme wedding at Auntie Yiyi's house. The wedding was on October 30th, and the colors were black and white. Everyone was asked to just come in their Halloween costumes, and the reception turned into the party later in the night. I was uncomfortable with the idea of dressing up (or down, as it were) for a wedding, so I wore a Snow White costume (and wig!) that we had. It was kind-of itchy, but I just remember the whole evening being so much fun. I got to spend time with my aunt as she got ready for her wedding, and with my cousins (who were always a blast). It was a fun year.