It takes a kid to put the fun back in a holiday. Thanks to my kid — a dainty 2 1/2 -year-old who will be going trick-or-treating tonight as a home-made mermaid — Halloween is spooky and exciting again.
Not that it wasn’t ever fun, but the meaning of it changed there for a while. As an adult, Halloween is usually about drinking too much in order to block out the reality of the insane and overly-revealing costume you chose to wear. Did I really go out in public as a Richard Simmons look-alike complete with ankle weights, a head-band and shorts so short that people still won’t look me straight in the eyes? Um … yes, I did.
One year I went as Captain Duct Tape in a suit completely made out of the super adhesive including a cape, a mask and a duct tape codpiece. I learned quickly that night that duct tape doesn’t breathe, and my wife had to cut me out using garden shears. I had lost about seven gallons of water and at least 80 percent of my body hair. But again, very memorable.
For some reason when you didn’t have a kid, Halloween was about going over-the-top — getting a little wild and a lot loony. So thank goodness I had a kid as my last costume idea was for a pole-dancing pirate. I shudder to think.
But Halloween is much more fun now, not to mention tamer and less likely to get me a night in the pokie. There’s a build-up to it, and my little girl is at the age where she can really enjoy it.
Take for instance buying a pumpkin: There was nothing like watching the excitement on her face as she spied all those golden orbs sitting on the sidewalk just begging for us to take them home. She ran about the whole lot bouncing from pumpkin to pumpkin until she found one the size of a boulder. It was as big as she was, and she strained to lift it, somehow managing to pick it up. She also dropped it on herself, but up until that point it was magical.
This year I could sit down with her and watch “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” A Halloween tradition that was so important as a kid came alive again. It reminded me how cartoons used to be good, and brought back my own memories of bobbing for apples and Brach’s caramel squares. Charlie Brown is absolutely timeless, and it was a thrill to share with her something that had been part of my own childhood.
She brought home Halloween decorations that she made in pre-school. At least I think they were Halloween decorations. At this age, and with that level of artistic talent, it’s hard to be completely sure. Could be it was a scary bat with blood dripping from its fangs, or just a very abstract interpretation of some autumn leaves. Who’s to say?
And today we get treated to a little performance at her school. I used to love those kinds of things as a kid — dressed up and stuck on a stage in front of gawking adults. Singing ghoulish and ghostly songs beneath cotton spider webs and flying witches. I can’t believe that I’m actually excited, but there it is — I am!
Tonight won’t be our first year of trick-or-treating. We did a test run last year and raked in the candy pretty well as a lady bug (the kid, not me). This year we’re really geared up. She has a mermaid costume that her grandmother and my wife concocted, complete with a scallop shell on her shirt and a blue sequin tail. She should score some serious sweets, and I’m charging her a commission.
I’ll be Mr. Normal out on the trick-or-treating trail — just street clothes for me. No duct tape or polyester shorts. Halloween has a whole different feel, and it’s fun and exciting again.
Those other days are long gone it seems, and good riddance. Although, maybe they’ll come back after she heads off to college. I still have that pole dancing pirate idea to try.