Ghosts and ... Hey, What Does a Goblin Look Like, Anyway?

So ... we are in Halloween mode around here.

(What? Lowe's has moved on to Christmas. Cut me some slack!)

Raphaela made this post about what she dressed up as growing up, and I realized that I couldn't  account for an awful lot of years when I am absolutely positive I wore a costume.

It is ironic, because as I said in my response to her post, I have hectored Not Your Average Blogger about this in the past and been completely exasperated when he couldn't name a single thing.

I find it amusing I remember the disastrous costumes more than what I'm assuming were successful ones.

So I emailed the two people who are obligated by law to know everything about my childhood and cherish those memories and hold them close and have them at instant recall -- and my mom and dad remembered even less than I did.

Clearly, Halloween was a Big Fat Deal when I was growing up. 

I do remember carving lots of pumpkins, and I remember balmy Halloweens in California and then being completely outraged that it was SO EFFING COLD when we moved to Illinois.

I remember parades at school, around the playground. I remember thinking it was inane to have every kid in school marching in a parade that only went around the school playground where absolutely no one would see us.

I remember trick-or-treating with friends. I remember that the apartment complex where my best friend lived had this gigantic spread in their highly decorated and eerie rec room and the owners were incredibly fun and generous.

I remember that the people next door and down the hill from us used to give me gi-normous candy bars for stopping by. I was probably their only visitor, and it was probably one of three times a year we actually saw each other. I feel a little guilty about that now.

I remember parties as I got older when we moved to Florida. I remember one party in particular as it was the occasion of my first slow dance, which was with a boy I had a dreadful crush on at the time. But I haven't a friggin' clue what my costume was.

I remember dressing up ONCE in college.  Again, disastrous. This Germanic white chick with zero background in makeup and hair should never have attempted Asian culture on her own.

But the weird thing is, I **love** Halloween. I love decorating. I love candy. I love kids coming up and bantering. I love how one night a year everyone is actually out walking around and visiting, if not their neighbors, someone's neighbors.  So why this big memory-bank void? I don't know. Maybe my love of Halloween is me compensating.

In any case, the Young Prince will have no such problems, because, like my parents for me, I am legally obligated to know everything about his childhood and cherish those memories and hold them close and have them at instant recall. And unlike my parents for me, I have blog data dating back to when he was nine months old. In that time: an alligator, an elephant, Mickey Mouse, Darth Vader, and Buzz Lightyear. This year, he is Batman.

It is good I chronicle, for I am sure I would never remember anything after the elephant.

If you clicked on any of the links above, you might have noticed that a lot of them involve the YP and a recurring sidekick character.  That would be Dylan, who has been the YP's best friend since they were less than a year old, and whose family we adore.  But they all moved to Illinois over the summer, and it is odd to think that we will have to find alternate means of entertainment from now on for Halloween and Easter. Odd, and sort of lonely.

In more unfortunate news for the boy's social life, we live on a cul de sac that is at the end of another cul de sac. And we do not live in the ritzy McMansion golf club housing project development where all the rich people live and the cool kids hang out and you need a pass to get by the gate guard. Which means few if any of his friends are likely to saunter by his house on Halloween. I'm still working on figuring out how to get him invited to trick-or-treat with them, but in the meantime, what this means is I am in what is probably phase 3 of the groundwork of making our house the Party Destination Spot. Sort of like the rec room at my friend's apartment complex.

Phase one consisted of measured (ha!) investment over the past few years in Halloween stuff -- decor for indoors and out.

Phase two consisted of a birthday party test run while he was still in preschool in DC where any spectacular failures would not follow him throughout the years.

Phase three is this party, with kindergarteners.

Phase four will be figuring out how to evolve the party as the attendees' ages advance. How scary is too scary? When can it be at night instead of the afternoon? When can I make the basement creepy and haunted, or set up tiki torches lighting the way to the incredibly dark and scary back part of our property? (OK, right, I should probably hold off on that til I'm sure all the poison ivy has been removed, but still!) How long til I have to pay off all my neighbors so we can have a Samhain bonfire back there? Etc., etc.

This year, though, is all still benign. Lots of jack-o-lanterns, including cake decoration. Lots of smiling skeletons and cartoon bats, sort of including the YP.  Daylight hours.

And, I'm told, a special appearance from Foodie Staffer, who has clearly lost her mind in volunteering to come help shepherd a bunch of hyperactive sugared-up 5-year-olds. Or maybe this is her way of keeping her Halloween fervor in check.  Either works. I'm happy for the assist!

Comments

[cosmiccamper]

Batman! Excellent choice! He can be The Dark Tyke!

[ardentdelerium]

I have the williams sonoma 3-d pumpkin cake pan if you want to use it. it only works with dense cakes though--I tried a basic chocolate cake and the top crushed the bottom.

[Matt]

I saw this comic the other day and for some reason it reminded me of YP in the Darth Vader costume: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/10/15/

[average blogger]

Cosmic: Oh, now you know that's all we're going to call him from here on....

Ardent: Aw, thanks! But no, I've got a dinky little flat jack-o-lantern pan, and given that it looks like a small group(with attendees getting small pieces of cake lest their parents kill me,) I think I'm covered. :) Maybe next year, though!

Matt: A-hahahaha! Were you around the year we had the Blues Brother Incident anecdote? Some sweet little old lady handed the kid some candy and mumbled something I couldn't hear. So I have no idea what fired the synapse in my kid's wee movie-encrusted brain, but he looks in his bag and says plain as day (to me,) "What the hell is this??" in his best Belushi impersonation evarr. And it wasn't because he was upset with what she handed out, it was something he liked. He was totally reacting to something that reminded him of the movie.

Fortunately, the old lady was deaf -- or a very good actress -- because all she said was something completely unrelated, like, "I **DO** like your costume! Happy Halloween!" I then quickly hustled us off her porch and onto the sidewalk, where we discussed the whole thing about how you say "trick or treat," "thank you," AND NOT ANOTHER WORD.

[Lori]

I think I'm in love with the Darth Vader costume!