Sunday, November 1, 2009

It just wouldn't be halloween if . . .

. . . you didn't have to suffer as you trick or treated your way around the neighborhood with a costume that was scratching, itching or poking you or made it hard to breathe and or walk. 

This is a truism I had to keep reminding MiniMe about last night as we spent 2 hours trick or treating in our neighborhood and the one just a short walk away.

Her dad had rented her a "parrot" costume, with lots of feathers, which while they looked beautiful, were actually kind of scratchy and pokey. 

"I think this costume is giving me a rash," complained MiniMe only a half hour into our candy-seeking jaunt. "I've got a feather that keeps poking me in the eye."

Man UP! This is what halloween memories are made of. Scratchy costumes. Suffocating masks. 

"Believe me," I said to MiniMe, "one day you'll be trick or treating with your child and be telling him or her stories about the year you thought it would be a great idea to be a parrot, only the costume gave you a rash."

Then I told her, not for the first time or even the second time, about all the halloween experiences that my sister and I endured for the sake of that perfect costume. Some favorites:

The year I thought it would be a great idea to go dressed as Kermit the Frog. Wearing swim fins on your feet is ok when you're getting dressed and ready to go, but after about half a block, walking in the dark with swim fins on your feet is not only a pain in the ass, but a tripping hazard.

One year my sister and I went in matching costumes. Bags of jelly beans. Mom's idea and really quite a creative one. She took clear plastic drycleaning bags & cut leg holes in the top. Then she stuffed balloons around us inside the bags and tied the whole thing up around our necks with a pretty bow. We thought we looked great. But by the time we made it home from trick or treating, we'd left a trail of balloons through the neighborhood and now we were wearing nothing but tattered clear plastic bags. 

MiniMe and I left a trail of red feathers around the neighborhood along with a few candywrappers. Had to test the goods along the way. 

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