Halloween

Do you get into the spirit of Halloween? Do you decorate your house? Wear costumes? Or do you turn out the light and disappear for a few hours during Trick or Treat (or as they like to call it in this area – Beggars Night)?

When we lived on a busier street, and went through five bags of candy in an hour, we went to the trouble of decorating our house. One year we even put the speakers up to the window and played spooky music. It was fun.

Now we live on a cul-de-sac and we're lucky if we get 20 kids. The first year we had LOTS of candy left over – since we were basing our purchase from the busy street we moved from. We also decorated. When realization hit us, my husband and I kind of lost interest. I mean, who's going to see our house? We're not exactly a drive-by.

But my daughter loves Halloween. When she lived with us, she did the decorating. Now that she's moved out, the decorations stay in the basement. I still hand out candy, though. Even for those few souls who venture down our street.

As I thought about writing this post, I thought it would be interesting to post pictures of my kids' costumes. Lucky for me, I was organized at one time and most of my pictures are in albums (yes, we're talking paper copies here since I used film back in the dark ages). Needless to say, I don't have a photo for every year and it's not because they lost interest. I guess I would be to blame for that (or maybe I didn't have any film – yeah, let's go with that!).

1983 Ft. Monmouth, NJ

I don't know if I'm responsible for my son's infatuation with Garfield, but his first Halloween costume was the lazy cat. He was 1-1/2, I was 26. Damn, I was young. The dog in this photo is Natasha (Tasha, for short). She was a German Shepherd/Husky mix. I guess she wanted some candy, too.

1985 Ft. Monmouth, NJ

Two years later (yeah, don't know what happened to 1984), my son moved onto Transformers. Gee, do you think they're still popular?

1986 Ft. Monmouth, NJ

In 1986, I wasn't able to enjoy this Halloween with my kiddies, since I was stuck in the hospital with pneumonia. I have no idea who my son went out as, but you can see we recycled that Garfield costume for my daughter. She's not as infatuated with that cat as my son still is.

1987 Santa Barbara, CA

In 1987 I either got lazy, or cheap, or my son really did want to go as a clown with a bow-tie. And of course, if he had one, my daughter had to have one, too. She picked Big Bird for her costume.

1989 Ft. Rucker, AL

1989 Ft. Rucker, AL

In 1989 (yeah, 1988 is missing) I got a little more creative. My daughter wanted to go as a cat, so I bought her a grey sweat suit and then made the ears and tail. I thought it turned out cute. My son went all pirate-y that year. He does love to pose for the camera!

1990 Ft. Rucker, AL

In 1990 my daughter and her friend wanted to go as cheerleaders. The only good cheerleading costumes were the ones you made. But I hate cutting patterns. My daughter's friend's mother (who was my friend) said she hated to sew, but she'd gladly cut the patterns if I made both outfits. I wish I had a picture of the two of them together, because they really were cute.

1990 Ft. Rucker, AL

I even made my son's costume (man, I was a busy little sewer back then, but it was also a lot cheaper and money was tight). Think he camouflages well?

1993 Huber Heights, OH

This last picture was taken on Halloween in 1993. It wasn't our first Halloween in Ohio, but it was definitely our first Halloween in the snow! And it was snowing as I snapped this photo. Oh – and where was my daughter? Inside. She hates snow.

However ever you celebrate (and for some of you, I guess you got snow), have a safe and happy Halloween.