trick or treat

My son has never enjoyed Halloween as much as I did when I was a child. First of all, he really didn't relish the idea of wearing a costume for any reason, and face painting was out of the question. He was a very reluctant Thomas the Tank Engine for a couple of years as a preschooler - but he looked so cute! The only costume I remember him being particularly excited about was the dinosaur one that I bought for him in the midst of his lenghty paleontological phase. (Check out the dinosaur documentary he did as a kindergartner - with my assistance - called "Zoorasic.") He actually wore his dinosaur costume around the house on many occasions, uttering appropriate dinosaur roars for the ultimate effect. But I was surprised today when I asked him which of his childhood costumes he liked the best and he recalled the year that he and his buddy, Andrew, dressed up like baseball players for the Atlanta Braves. "You can't go wrong as Greg Maddox," he observed. 

The most memorable costume from my childhood days had to be my store-bought "Lil Devil" apparel, which included the typical red, one-piece jumpsuit that tied in the back at the neck, a plastic mask of a smiling demon, and a pitchfork. What were my parents thinking? Fortunately, my impersonation of Satan did no long-term spiritual damage. My other favorite costume was one I made myself the last year I went trick-or-treating as a teenager - a basic ghost created  by cutting eye holes in a white sheet. My parents have a lovely photo of me wearing my ghost attire (I recall joking about being a holy ghost) while holding our black cat, Tar Baby. Again, what were my parents thinking? I found that my candy intake was heightened if I got on my knees on my neighbors' doorsteps, since then I looked like a cute little ghost (which I wasn't) rather than a greedy teenager (which I was). Of course, if I stood up too soon or the neighbor lingered at the door, the desired effect was lost.

The other reason that Chaney lacks my affection for Halloween is because he doesn't eat chocolate, so bringing home a bulging bag of candy wasn't particularly appealing to him, since he would only consume the Smarties, Blow Pops, Pay Days, and Starbursts. (My son does eat white chocolate, but that is not a staple of the Halloween candy industry.) I, on the other hand, would eat just about anything that was dropped in my bag, including the peanut butter taffy wrapped in orange or black waxed paper. All year long I looked forward to the happy half hour that my sister and two brothers and I would spend sitting crosslegged in the living room floor after making our trick-or-treating rounds trading candy. The first order of business for me was to try to get rid of any Mounds, 3 Musketeers, or Milky Ways in hopes of procuring Snicker's, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and little packets of candy corn. Anybody want to make a trade?