The GHOSTS of Halloween Past!

Making the Mundane Mag...Making the Mundane Mag...

Oct 30

I decided to take to heart the immortal words of Bennett Collen, circa 5th grade. “The next time I have to write a 2000 word composition, I am just going to submit 2 pictures.” I tricked myself into thinking I would not write much in this post, after I treated myself to a trip down memory lane perusing old photo albums for Halloween pictures. But the writer in me can’t resist a few words here and there. And actually, most of my best memories were not captured in pictures because I was too busy enjoying them to find the camera.Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. Maybe as a kid it was because we were not allowed to have candy except when Trick or Treating. If I rationed my cache well, I could enjoy candy every day until Thanksgiving!But my favorite Halloweens were after my children were born. Who can resist a baby pumpkin! Unfortunately I could not find a singe picture of any one of my kids in the homemade baby pumpkin costume, even though they all wore it. A witch and her black cat are pretty irresistible too.My favorite series of Halloweens were the years we hosted our annual Collen Clan Halloween Party. Uncle Bern always wore the most minimal, but the most creative and the best costumes. One year drew on a mustache and called himself Alexe Hente (SP?) The Demanding One – from a coffee commercial. Another year, he was a Volkswagen test driver and the next, Senator Bob Dole.We Collens frequently chose group costumes: along with a Red Sox Team and a Celtic Team we also appeared as The Great Detectives and the cast of Gilligan’s Island. (Because Abigail was young enough, she thought the “Skipper” did a lot of skipping so she volunteered for that role.)My favorite Halloween costume was worn by Abigail – she was a beautiful princess in the fanciest dress ever, but she had fake hillbilly teeth. (Couldn’t find that picture either!)There are all kinds of fun kid activities during Halloween – here’s my 3,000 words.