Autumn and Halloween

[Makeitstop]

This is a bittersweet time of year for me. It's just starting to cool off, and as soon as I finally start feeling comfortable, my body awakens from it's summer dormancy and my metabolism skyrockets, causing my body to pump out unbelievable amounts of heat. It will be some time before it is actually cold enough outside to feel comfortable, and by then I will be so warm that I cannot remain inside without overheating.

It's also that time when Halloween comes around, which is not what it used to be. As a young child, Halloween was disappointing in many ways, as I always had a crappy costume, numerous restrictions, and the dangers posed by larger kids in the neighborhood who liked to ruin things by intimidating and robbing small children. But all of this was overshadowed by a pillow case full of free candy which would be traded and horded and slowly consumed for days if not weeks.

As I got older things improved greatly. We moved to a better neighborhood, and I was able to finagle some real costumes, either renting or gathering them bit by bit for weeks in advance. I loved my ninja costume most of all, as I got it the year that everyone else went as ninjas. Not only could you go back to the same house more than once, you could circle around back in a group and get a second piece of candy in the same trip (I come from a family of thieves, grifters and lawyers, so my sense of right and wrong took a while to develop).

When I got a little old for trick or treating, I started going down to state street for the annual Halloween party (before it became the annual Halloween riot) and would wear a caricature mask of a certain president who was popular in that city, and would have friends and props which lampooned whatever his most recent scandal was at the time. When that got old I started going to a party which was only vaguely Halloween oriented, but gave me a chance to hang out with busy friends and come up with really creative, cheap, and often absurd costumes.

The past several years Halloween has been disappointing for one reason or another, though most of the time it has at least something do with a woman. But I think it also has to do with the fact that I just don't feel the Halloween atmosphere living in a cheap apartment building filled with college students where I have little ability or reason to indulge in the festivities, and where the only sign of Halloween will be the aisle of cheesy crap at wal-mart and the change in programming on the old idiot box. All I plan to do this year is to go to a costume party, and it's probably not going to be a very good one.

I miss Halloween. I miss carving pumpkins with my grandma. I miss taking the rotten remains of those pumpkins out back and blasting them to bits with a shotgun after Halloween was over. I miss trying to talk stores and restaurants into giving out free stuff just to see if it would work. I miss trading away anything with caramel for that last peanut butter twix. I miss pulling elaborate pranks on my friends, or even just dressing in black and popping out of a tree. I miss driving my teachers insane with arguments about how it was discriminatory and hypocritical to allow Halloween and ban other holidays. I miss looking down on the phony creepy and scary stuff being promoted as I dived head first into the real stuff.

I suppose someday I may get Halloween back. Until then, I'll just have to survive with what I've got.

[emolas]

I miss Halloween. I miss carving pumpkins with my grandma. I miss taking the rotten remains of those pumpkins out back and blasting them to bits with a shotgun after Halloween was over. I miss trying to talk stores and restaurants into giving out free stuff just to see if it would work. I miss trading away anything with caramel for that last peanut butter twix. I miss pulling elaborate pranks on my friends, or even just dressing in black and popping out of a tree. I miss driving my teachers insane with arguments about how it was discriminatory and hypocritical to allow Halloween and ban other holidays. I miss looking down on the phony creepy and scary stuff being promoted as I dived head first into the real stuff.

I suppose someday I may get Halloween back. Until then, I'll just have to survive with what I've got.

There is hope. When you have children of your own you will be able to relive your childhood vicariously through them.

I miss taking the rotten remains of those pumpkins out back and blasting them to bits with a shotgun after Halloween was over.

You just reminded me about a trebuchet I made a long while back for the explicit purpose of throwing pumpkins for skeet shooting. My friends and I must have spent over a thousand dollars on pumpkins that year but damn was that fun!