I recently saw a post “if Halloween is her favorite holiday, she’s mentally unstable.” I laughed and laughed. I laughed so hard that the machete I was holding was just shaking.
It’s hard to say where my love of the holiday really comes from. I rarely watch scary movies. I’m not the “celebrate all the holidays” kind of person. Maybe it spawned when my mom took TWO YEAR OLD me to see The Exorcist in the drive-in. She says that she was more than a little bothered when later that night I tried to re-enact the scene where Regan’s head spins around. Nowadays her experience of horror at my actions would be called a “natural consequence.” Or maybe my love of scary things came about when my mom took FOUR YEAR OLD me on the zipper at some carnival. My short life flashed before my eyes. I’ve only ridden the zipper maybe twice since then. Regardless, the die was cast. My little self was drawn to scary stuff.
Kindergarten Halloween. Nearly every girl was dressed in the fashion costume of the day. Dreadful plastic numbers. Masks that look more like the guards the dentist wears to prevent things from your mouth spraying up on his face. But in the 70’s, molded plastic affixed to the front of your mug with a string of thin elastic is how a girl was made to feel like a princess. And that’s what kindergarten at Evergreen Elementary was full of. There was one other girl without the store bought glory. She went as a box of raisins. Then there was me. I was a vampire bat. Face painted green and black. Fake blood dripping from the corners of my mouth. All the markers of a future Halloween fan.
It didn’t lighten up from there. Many years at Halloween, people would ask me, “what are you?” “Dead.” Dead was a go-to costume. #GothIsNotAPhase, but still , there’s been lots of other costumes and shenanigans.
The creativity of Halloween is the real draw. I love seeing all the ideas that people come up with for costumes and decorations. It’s like a day specifically designed to show off imaginations. I will absolutely buy candy to give to children so that I may see a miniature John Wick at my door. I love to have parties so that I can see the guy who doesn’t want to dress up put on his aviator glasses and hoody and say that he’s a famous police sketch. I’ll make desserts that look like ear wax covered q-tips just to see the a family that includes Tippi Hernden from the Birds accompanied by maybe Bob Ross or Allen from Hangover, Carlos included.
If I could, I would try to flex my creative muscle every day just to make someone smile. I know that much imagination should be paced though. There’s a fine line that separates creative from crazy. I mean, one minute you’re making fake glass to put in cupcakes, the next you’re wondering if that meme might be true. Enjoy all your Halloween things!
Bifocals and Barbells 