Do you have a particularly fond Halloween memory?

Were you always good at coming up with costumes, or did you end up with the plastic Strawberry Shortcake mask with sweat on your lip all night?

-- Anonymous, July 01, 1999

Answers

Pamie. You are not going to believe this. I was once a bug for Halloween. A ladybug, that is. My younger sister, Hannah, was a cat. I just have to scan this picture for you. You aren't going to believe it.



See? My sister's got one of those plastic costumes from K-Mart on. We had that outfit for a long time. In fact, we made a little money off of it a couple years later. Hannah would ride her little training-wheel bike around, wearing that getup, and we'd tell all the little kids in the neighborhood that she was the famous bicycle-riding kitten, Cuddles. She'd sign autographs for 50 cents each. I remember all the little kids running home and asking their parents for money so Hannah could "Love, Cuddles Kitten" on a scrap of paper.

Hey, we couldn't help it they were a bunch of gullible suckers.

-- Anonymous, July 01, 1999

I was Wonder Woman every year until my mother couldn't stand making the costume anymore.

-- Anonymous, July 01, 1999

Halloween is the most important holiday of the year. It's better than Christmas. That's not an opinion; that's a universal fact.

I don't have too many really intense memories of childhood Halloweens, although I remember that my mother was a world-class costume creator. I'd come up with grand, impossible costume concepts, and she'd make them work somehow. If she couldn't get the costume together, she'd think of something that looked much better than my idea.

All my best Halloween memories are from my post-highschool period. I got to learn exactly why all my costume ideas were impossible (a muzzle for a werewolf may sound cool, but you can't make it with cardboard), and I learned how to make my own ideas look good (a little blue mixed in with white makeup makes vampires look really cool).

Also, I got to participate in charity haunted houses while I was in college. I did that for several years and got a lot of fantastic memories from those, but had to quit after I started to damage my voice from bellowing at drunk teenagers.

-- Anonymous, July 02, 1999

I had a similar experience one Halloween, only I was trying to be Pippy Longstocking. As I planned the costume out in my head it was fabulous! Mismatched socks, skirt, and a sweatshirt with dumb mismatched patches all over it. At first I wasn't so down because my hair and makeup would compensate. Mom helped with the freckles, braided my hair, spray painted it orange and started stuffing pipe cleaners in the braids. Well, I guess things would've been okay if only she didn't bend the braids down instead of up. They drooped, and I was left looking like a bag lady. I cried and ruined my freckles and no one knew what I was supposed to be so I just said bag lady as I cried and cried s'more.

-- Anonymous, July 02, 1999

I have always detested Halloween. Something about living in a rural area and worrying about weirdos hiding in the ditch.

I still detest Halloween and every year I feel and ice cold panic in my belly about pulling off costumes, while my children are dancing around with glee cause they know there are a couple of really great sugar highs lurking in the wings.

One year, my youngest went as a suitcase. Last year, my oldest decided she wanted to be a dead prom queen.

One Halloween, before my brother and I were old enough to go trick or treating "in town" my mother, who was not the greatest costume contriver, was frustrated with me and the fact that I was whining about not wanting to go out.

In her frustration, she grabbed a pink sheet, cut two very large eye holes in it, and threw a green glow stick around my neck so I wouldn't get hit by a car.

The next Halloween, we were allowed to go trick or treating "in town."

-- Anonymous, July 02, 1999

Halloween s the geatest. My love for the holiday keeps growing every year. Last Halloween I threw a party and worked the enitre month of October at nights turning the roof of my rented apartment into a graveyard. I wouls have been evicted on the spot if my landlord would have seen it. Over 200 people came. I'm not sure if I'll do it again as it got filled up w/ drunks and the riot vibe was there. I love Halloween more than any holiday.

-- Anonymous, July 02, 1999

Halloween is definitely one of my favorite holidays. And so is Independence Day, which is just around the bend. Instead of hoarding candy though, I hoarded firecrackers when I was a kid. I did this because, in Texas, they only sell firecrackers around July 4th and New Years. I still have a package of bottle rockets (now illegal to sell in Texas).

One Halloween a friend and I thought it would be fun to do the "trick" part. Parents often follow their children around the neighborhood, driving slowly in their cars as the kids go from house to house. I had some smoke bombs left over from July 4th. A car came slowly driving by with parents inside and stopped as their children got candy. My friend and I lit the smoke bombs, ran behind the car, popped them in the tailpipe and under the vehical, and threw ourselves into a ditch so that we could watch our work. Soon the car was enveloped in white smoke, both doors were open, the parents were running about, jumping, shouting "Call 911!" and the kids were screaming.

That was fun. ... .

-- Anonymous, July 02, 1999

Come to think of it, here's a good childhood Halloween memory. The first year I didn't go trick-or-treating, we put together a dummy made of old clothes and a rubber mask stuffed with crumpled newspaper. My dad ran a clothes hanger and some twine down his back to make him look like he was standing on our front porch. We got to watch lots of kids creep up to our door, nervously eyeing the boogeyman waiting to grab them.

The next year, I dressed up in the old clothes and rubber mask, stuffed some newspaper into my sleeves, and put on sunglasses under the mask so no one could see my eyes. Then I slumped on the front porch and waited for the kids. Once again, many kids would nervously slink up to the door, speculating on whether the boogeyman was alive. Some confidently proclaimed that it was stuffed, because it had been stuffed last year. Once the kids had gotten their candy, I lurched at them with a scream, and they all ran clear to the sidewalk before they'd dare look back.

The next year, we didn't put anything on the porch, but lots of kids asked where our dummy was.

-- Anonymous, July 02, 1999

I was a pirate for Halloween for a few years running back in my early grade-school days, and my pride and joy was this plastic sword. I can't remember if it was glow-in-the-dark or not, although it was the right color for it. Anyway, I was at school, dressed up as a pirate, and it was almost time for recess, so I was getting fidgity with the sword, just itching to go out on the playground and hit someone with it. My teacher got sick of it eventually, and took the sword away, leaving me devistated until the end of the school day. Within minutes of getting the sword back, I accidentally broke it. And that was the last year I was a pirate.

-- Anonymous, July 02, 1999

I always wanted to do something "different" for Halloween, which almost always resulted in the most puzzled looks from the people we'd trick or treat.

One year, during the period where I was reading a whole lot of Marvel Comics, I decided to go as a superhero. Not any recognizable superhero, but one of my own devising. I drew it out and spent weeks painstakingly learning to use Mom's sewing machine to get it right.

The result was what looked like an impressive figure-skating costume, or some punk-rock male prostitute. "Trick" or treat could have had a very different connotation that year.

-- Anonymous, July 02, 1999

My worst Halloween costume ever was when I was 10 or 11 and decided to go as "a German girl". I happened to have a pair of actual lederhosen that someone had brought me from Germany, so I put them on with a white turtleneck and this hat with a feather in it that my mom had. I put my hair in pigtails, and my mom taught me to say something like "Donkey field mouse" when people gave me candy (she said it meant "Thank you very much" in German).

That was a very lame costume. I often had lame costumes, since I would put off thinking about it until the last minute every year.

-- Anonymous, July 02, 1999

My favorite Halloween memory came long after I quit trick-or- treating. I happened to walk outside of my friend's house just as a couple of kids were throwing eggs at my car. I caught one of them, who started to freak out. I wasn't about to let him off without any kind of lesson, and I sympathized with the problems of parental intervention, so I made him eat the rest of the eggs. I let him go after he started gagging on egg #5.

When I was young enough to get dressed up and trick-or-treat, I spent more time scaring people than collecting candy.

-- Anonymous, July 02, 1999

Oh Pamie, that's not even funny. One year, I WAS wearing the plastic Strawberry Shortcake mask! I certainly wish I had a scanner here...

-- Anonymous, July 03, 1999

One year, I was a platypus. I had to wear this awful headgear thing, so I just taped the beak right onto it.

This year, I went trick or treating with my roommate and her friend. My costume drawer consisted mainly of hats and accessories. Due to these limited resources, I had to be "a freak". Descending into the dining hall to sign out would have been a little nerve wracking in silver pants, a red cape and a viking hat if I were at all self conscious. Fortunately, I live to make people laugh, even if they are laughing at me.

My English teacher borrowed the Viking hat to teach his class in. He is now famous for it, and I doubt I will ever see it again.

Halloween is definitely better than Christmas!

-- Anonymous, July 03, 1999

In seventh grade, I was a "yuppie" for Halloween.

Yup. Button down shirt, tie, and, um, I made up this little business cards that said I was the president of "Pasta Salads Incorporated."

I think I read too much "Newsweek" when I was in junior high.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 1999

Probably my best costume was in 4th grade when I went as a pirate. I duct taped a toilet plunger to my knee for a peg leg. The cool part was, I could unscrew it while I ran from house to house, then screw it back in and hold my leg up behind me before ringing the doorbell. I think more than one house believed me to be actually missing a limb. The next year I also had a pretty good costume- a mummy. It took a whole lot of ace bandages and a role or two of toilet paper, but it was worth it (except going to the bathroom). Oh, then last year I went to some friends' wedding, so I had a tux on with a wreath of flowers in my hair. At the party afterwards, I had a Brak (from Space Ghost) mask I had made, so I was simply Brak in formal wear. When I got tired of the mask, I stole someone's water pistol and became James Bond. Definitely my most versatile costume. The worst Halloween experience-- when I was 4. I went as Batman, complete with dyed underwear and tights. My brother was Superman. When we went to our first house, the near-sighted old lady exclaimed, "Oh, it's Superman! And look how cute Batgirl is!" I think that was the first time I used the word 'bitch'.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 1999