Monday, October 19, 2009

Memories of Halloween

So Halloween is by far my favorite holiday. I love that there are activities you can do at night and that people get to dress up and pretend to be something else. I love the cool weather and the carmel apples, the jack-o-lanterns and the tp-ing of people's houses. Pranks, ghouls, parties, haunted houses...all of this makes Halloween one of the more festive holidays of the year. Today I reflected on Halloweens of my past, and certain memories resurfaced:

I remember when my brother Stephen didn't know what he was going to dress as, so my oldest brother Chris threatened to strip him naked and paint his entire body black. He would go as a piece of tar, Chris claimed with his mischievous grin. But my mother flat-out said no, so Stephen was spared the embarrassment.

I remember going to the trunk-or-treat every year in the church parking lot because my parents thought Halloween was too dangerous in Las Vegas for us to span the neighborhoods. Trunk-or-treating is safer, even if the candy-haul isn't quite as impressive.

I remember finally being old enough to hang out with my friends when I was 13, when we dressed up and went haunted house-hopping all over town. That was the scariest thing I'd ever done to date and it was awesome to be around all the drunk, laughing older teenagers who frequent the haunted houses.

I remember finally realizing how truly disgusting bobbing for apples really is, with person after person dunking and salivating into the same small barrel of apples. From then to now, I've never bobbed for apples. And I never will.

And I remember the last Halloween I was in Las Vegas (2007), when I totally ditched the second half of my three-hour Tuesday night poli sci class so that I could go to the church parking lot and pass out (ie eat) Halloween candy. My trunk was just the right size because I own a Hyundai Sante Fe, so my sisters crawled in the back with me and we all talked, laughed and occasionally shared the bowl of candy with trunk-or-treaters.

Halloween is magical. Don't anyone try to tell me different.

3 comments:

  1. Bobbing for apples is gross. I have a way better game. Remind me to tell you about it sometime. For now, let's just say it involves donuts and there is no mixed salivation.

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  2. Are the donuts on a string and do the contestants eat it without their hands? Cause I am the CHAMPION at that game!

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  3. Yes. We should play it sometime.

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