The kids love this annual autumn freakout, that’s for sure.
I like it, too. I like wild outfits—this is a chance to get a little wilder.
I suppose the interest relates to our culture’s obsession with image and identity. Seeing the adults (and myself) get into it is a bit weird.
Personally, I like the mixed-up costume prank where there are levels to the effect. I’ll put a coarse distraction costume on top of a more subtle twist. …Very odd. Then there’s the “Is it a costume?” gag. Friends and I have also gone out on the town in the days near Halloween while wearing real wigs that push things but not too far, so that people who see us can’t quite be sure.
I saw that this year that Henry got into the mixed-message spirit of things with his pregnant zombie.
Lucy naturally has quite a little Addams family girl thing going on. (Somebody Ricci was the actress.)
Anyway, we also wondered about the candies this year. Kids don’t like chocolate. Kids HATE Butterfingers. No child has EVER bought a Butterfinger at the convenience store with their saved-up allowance money. Obviously, a lot of grown-ups give out the kind of candies that THEY like without a shred of thought about the kiddies. That’s kinda funny. I mean, the Butterfinger people miss the mark by a LONG shot. I didn’t quite appreciate until we discussed it this year that even the M&M people (and suchlike) aren’t really with it. I mean, I like most candies—not BF’s, though. But kids LOVE Skittles and anything sour, sticky-chewy or fruity. Adults hate that stuff.
We noticed that there were hardly any kids out in our big local subdivision. Usually there’s a hundred. We saw a dozen. That was weird. I wonder what happened.
Our kids particularly like to be scared as they’re out and about. No hosts were putting out this year so they started asking us to scare them. I tried a few times and didn’t make the cut. I had a good one going then Gramma narked on me for no sane reason. Finally, I dropped off the back and invested some serious sneak-around effort and got to where they weren’t expecting anything and GOT EM GOOD. The kids gave me high marks for delivering a quality scare. “Oh yeah, that worked that time.”
Kids are nutty.
…But look who’s talking.
