Hallowe’en and the kids

I’m a child of, *sigh*, the 80’s. I was born in ‘75, but my first memories surface around 1980. Back in those days, Halloween was just starting to churn into a massive commercial moment. The 80’s saw the end of the innocence for it as well, with fears of poisoned or otherwise tampered-with candies sweeping us all up. Many of us probably have strong memories of candy inspection time after we got back home, with our parents scrutinizing, maybe even making comments about suspect neighbors.

I grew up on a dead-end street, in a rectory. My dad is a minister, but we had no particular “thing” about Halloween, so long as everybody attended to the meaning of the following day (All Souls). Our street was off a long, busy hill street, which we never ventured onto until we were much older. Instead, we’d go up and down our (small to a candy-hungry child) street, bemoaning the houses whose lights were off. This, of course, was back in the day when “fun size” candies still seemed chintzy to most people, so we’d get the big boys dropped into our Strawberry Shortcake (and by our, I mean, my) pillowcases. My costume in 1980, my kindergarten year, was The Fonz. This was my own idea, and I could tell, even at the tender age of five, that my mother was pretty much at a loss of how to take my long hair and fashion the greaser ‘do out of it. Eventually, we settled on a black knit cap being a good enough fake. I can’t remember the rest of the costumer, I just recall the costume parade that we all did through the rest of the school (while the fifth graders probably mocked us). I was so proud of myself for coming up with that idea, and of my admiration for Fonzie (I was also in love with most of the guys from Sha-na-na as well…probably a foreboding of my future choices in men).

In later years, I was a rodeo clown, Strawberry Shortcake, and, I think, a storm trooper (probably because of my older brother and his Star Wars obsession), as well as that lovely super hero below:

Wonder Woman!

That’s my sister as Raggedy Ann, and my little brother, who was probably too young to go out.

I loved those Underoos.

I loved dressing up. It was the one time of year that I could be anything or anyone, and not worry about anyone thinking I was weird. As I got older, I remember an alien princess, an egyptian princess, amongst other strange things, I’m sure. High school is a risky time for wearing a costume to classes. I looked, but the only year I got photographed was our senior year, when I came in as some sort of beatnik Bohemian guerilla. The photo has me in all black, looking like I was a member of the SLA, or Shining Path. I’m pretty sure I thought I looked cool.

Che Guevera’s sister.

College gets even riskier, because you add other things to the mix, like no parents, alcohol, and all-night parties. And then, when you leave all that behind, and the magical transformation occurs, suddenly you find yourself on the other side of Halloween. You’re a parent.

I always start off with ambitious ideas of what to have the kids dress up as, but it’s tough, since my older kiddo doesn’t really get much out of tramping around knocking on doors. He was only nine months old when I dressed him for his first Halloween, as a baby Legionnaire (Roman, not of the French Foreign kind). I made him a pleather fringe kilt and breastplate (while thinking I should have done him up as Rob Roy instead), and collected change for Unicef, while parading him around like only a dopey first-time parent does.

After that, we took a break from Halloween, at least going out. When you have a kid who isn’t going to pick a costume, doesn’t like candy (unless you count gummies), and doesn’t talk, it’s better to just focus on tossing buckets of candy at kids who come to your door.

Then I decided to give it a go again, and let him be characters that he was familiar with. Two years ago, he was Go, Diego, Go!, and last year, he was Woody from Toy Story.

The reluctant cowboy.

My mother made the vest, because we couldn’t find anything like it. This year, they have the whole Woody set at a local costume shop. This year, he indicated that he’d like to be Buzz, even though he still won’t do candy. However, for school on Friday, they’re supposed to dress up to be in a vocabulary parade. His word is “ancient” (the choice of the archaeologist – and very easy to understand in a visual sense). I’m going to make a cape, and iron on pictures of famous archaeology sites…I know it’s more for my sense of ease than his, but I’ll get him to help me somehow. Maybe we’ll put on some paper projectile points.

His younger brother was trying to con me into making a Gordon costume to continue last year’s theme:

Choo-choo’s on the brain.

But, we’ve settled on a middle ground. He’s going to be a rock star. I think he really believes it right now. He was dancing like a madman to Pink playing yesterday on the Today Show. And yes, I made that thing up there that he’s wearing. Never try to sew overalls without a pattern. My painting was the only thing that saved me there.

For kids on the spectrum, I think Halloween is very doable, as long as you drop all expectations and let them tell you what they are comfortable doing. For me, it’s meant letting go of traditional trick or treating. We have done the mall trick or treat, which is fun for both of them, because they enjoy looking at all the other kids running around in their costumes. We might do parties as they both get older. But, if your child wants to stay home, you can still encourage a dress-up party, and let them get into handing out candy. Our big task is finding costumes that involve zero makeup, no masks, nothing bulky or uncomfortable. We want him to get through whatever we all decide to do without ending up crying, or upset. It should be fun.

One thing he really loves is painting pumpkins, by the way. We get ours for really cheap at a local farm, where the big ones are five bucks and the sugars are only a buck a piece. I have six sugars waiting for painting. It’s easy to let them do, no cutting, no frustration. It can be abstract. I also keep sequins, stickers, feathers, and glitter handy for those really expressive moments. Mind you, I am about the most uninspired crafty mom there is (although my neighbor would probably disagree), so this discovery has been great. I hate being the only pumpkin gutter.

We love our Halloween specials as well. I did see, as a warning, that a lot of parents are complaining about the Great Pumpkin, that Lucy calls everyone “stupid” through the whole of the show, so maybe skip that one. We’re looking forward to Backyardigans, Blue’s Clues, and Dora for our Halloween fun.