Halloween Costumes

Ahhhhhh, Halloween. The one night of the year where it's considered normal to dress up and beg for candy. For some of us, we call that Tuesday.

But seriously, if you grew up in the US of A, chances are you have fond memories of Halloween from your childhood. I know I do. Our mum was great for Halloween! She would make us great costumes or encourage us to dress however we wanted.

What was YOUR favorite Halloween costume as a kid? I know what mine was. When I was about 11, my dad had lost a bunch of weight...about 80 pounds or so, and he had all his old pairs of "fat guy" pants. He had them stacked up, getting them ready to go to Goodwill, and I snuck in and grabbed 2 pairs. I found that if I bent one leg back, I could get it into a pant leg. Then I put the other pair on over top of that and did the same. I decided to tie shoes to my knees while doing this. It made me look like a midget. I took an old cane and cut it down to size so I could walk. I got good enough at it, and went as Toulouse Latrec that year for Halloween. This could, however, explain why my knees are shot!

An ex girlfriend of mine has the best Halloween costume story ever. Well, I think it's great...she's always seen it as traumatic. Her mum was the type to live vicariously through her kids. One year, she dressed my ex up as a box of popcorn. She painted a garbage can with red & white stripes and hand painted the old popcorn box logo on it. She cut out holes in the bottom for legs. She then put my ex into it and filled it all the way to the top with real popcorn!

My ex girlfriend grew up in the city, so I guess they didn't go door-to-door as much as suburban kids. There was usually a big Halloween costume party up the street at the church. That's where she went. So her dad walks her, in her armless box of popcorn costume, up the street to the party. Here's where the fun begins.

In a word: pigeons. As my ex and her dad were making their way up the street, flocks of pigeons descended on them, going after the ton of popcorn that made up her costume. Her arms were stuck INSIDE the costume, so she couldn't shoo them away. Her dad tried batting them away but come on...if you've ever seen any bird, let alone pigeons, go after popcorn, you know they weren't giving up! My ex said that she screamed and cried and was scared to death and begged her dad to take her home. Her dad, probably not wanting the money spent on making this costume going to waste, let alone facing the wrath of his missus, managed to get her to the party with her eyeballs intact. Still screaming and crying, with much popcorn missing from her costume, she always swore it was the most traumatic memory of her childhood.

Personally, I think it's the funniest damned Halloween story I've ever heard!