Halloween's great, I mean come on - I dare you to disagree. Go ahead, disagree with me. Why are you making me cry you big meany? Why do I keep typing these entries as if I'm talking to someone? Is this an email? Are you real?
Hi. So Halloween is one of my favorites, but if I think about it I guess I just like all holidays and whenever one comes by I think, hey, this is one of my favorites. In any case - this is one of those holidays that, like christmas, has that eerie void of happiness between the ages of 15-25(?). Here's what I mean - when you're x, and x is somewhere... here ---> 1>x>25, then Christmas and Halloween are pleasure_prime^3y where pleasure = candy+toys+excitement+novelty. You know what I mean. Waking up extra early Christmas morn before everyone else and just staring at the piles of presents. Assuming "you" have Christmas and "you" had parents who could "afford" presents... in giant bulk mass(x5) kids like my parents. Halloween is on the same linear slope. There's a prime age when Halloween is basically the best thing on earth and in your heart you know it to be true, and you anticipate better and better halloweens to come. Bigger arms + bigger body = more leg movement + better carrying capacity + staying up later = more candy + more excitement + + + + + + + + + + +
And then something odd happens. A halloween comes by and you think... am I too old for this? No way. You think - Halloween Party! You think - One more year, out with friends, you won't look too strange... it's not just for kids! Candy is good even though you're 16! Sure some of the house-folks say, "Aren't you a bit old for this?" Sure you run around with a pillow case instead of a treat bag... sure you run around with a crappy half-costume... you feel a little weird when a bunch of toddlers come up to trick or treat right with you when you both happen at a house at the same time...
And then it stops. How old were you when it just stopped? When it was just costume parties without the hour of trick or treating before hand? 16? 18? And then... Halloween kind of sucks. Maybe for a larf you wear a costume to college class, trying to grasp that last strand of fading luster... Maybe you excuse yourself out of a crappy party by saying you have to stay at home to watch the door. Handing out candy to kids having a “marvelous” time. Sometimes you dress up and pretend it's for the kids, to scare them, to make them laugh.
And sometimes you do nothing and the day passes by.
But by gods I did not prepare myself for the absolute, complete joy of watching your own take on the torch. All of a sudden, halloween is back, in full force, in full spirit. You spend hours on his/her costume, priming, pumping, warning about not eating candy until inspection time, warning about not running across the street, adding spice to the flavor of the occasion by watching Ghostbusters before hand, Nightmare before Christmas, telling ghost stories...
And night approaches. All of your excitement is reflected on his little face. This year he wanted to be a bat, with bat babies in a bat pouch. You (and by you, people, I'm talking about me) marvel at his imagination.
Holden met a friend at school and they've become fast friends, so this year, my first year getting to TrT with him, he also went out with his friend Ethan and his parents. We were invited to dinner at their place before nighttime, and we could do nothing but sit back and watch these two 5 year olds completely freak out with awesome happy anticipation. Ethan went as Sponge-bob and as mentioned Holden went as a bat. Maryl got a black cape for him and a small black fanny pack filled with plastic bat babies.
They had a routine going on. First Ethan would flip the candy-giver a krabby patty and say, here's your krabby patty! Most people who had no idea who Sponge-bob is assumed the little boy was saying something quite different than "krabby". One old lady even so far as said, "I wasn't born yesterday, son, you can't trick me!" Holden took right after the older boy Ethan, but what could he give candy-givers? Not bat babies...
Ethan: Here's a krabby patty!
Holden: And here's some blood!
At some point Holden turned into a vampire bat, and was happily giving out free blood! But it didn't stop there.
Ethan: Here's a krabby patty!
Holden: And here's some blood! For long life!
And -
Ethan: Here's a krabby patty!
Holden: And here's some blood, from the other trick'r'treaters... for long life!
Where does he come up with this stuff?
Ethan: Here's a krabby patty!
Holden: HERE'S SOME BLOOD! FROM OTHER KIDS! AND HERE'S SOME MORE FOR NEXT YEAR!!!!
???
Ethan: Here's a krabby patty!
Holden, increasingly excited: HERE'S SOME BLOOD! BLOOD! HERE'S YOUR BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD!!!!
You have to imagine him in his cat ears while doing this (we couldn't find bat ears, but bat ears and cat ears are basically indistinguishable, right?), and he's splashing imaginary blood on people.
Ethan's parents I believe were trying to laugh along with us, but they were mostly mortified. Even Ethan was complaining, "Holden you're giving them too much Blood! I'm just giving them one Krabby Patty, you don't have to keep saying Blood!"
And that did it.
Ethan: Here's your Krabby Patty!
Holden: BLOOD! BLOOD BLOOD! BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD!
For almost an hour, we tried to convince Holden to say, "Trick or Treat", then "Thank you, Happy Halloween!", but instead, all he would say is BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD! BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD, while frantically flapping his hands at very confused, slightly frightened candy-givers.
One lady was so taken aback, "What, are you trying to Hex me?!"
Near the end of the night when fatigue began to settle in, he managed to reduce the amount of bloodletting to a single or double dosage, and you could just see the "thank goodness" on the other boy's parents' faces.
Maryl and I could not stop laughing. Every house, it was a simple divine pleasure at seeing a boy so into the spirit of the occasion.
I figure I've got at least another 6-8 joyful years before it's... "uncool"... to go out with your mom and dad...
Until then, and I really mean it: Happy Halloween!