Trick or Treat!
I promise not to give out Mary Jane’s or Necco wafers, or worse. Healthy snacks.
I’m quite overwhelmed by seeing the sidewalks of Centre Street in Jamaica Plain crowded with children aged 0 to 16 in costume, trick-or-treating at the local businesses. Our own street is crawling with children as well. This is great to see. There was never this much Halloween activity in Somerville. Of course we’re here with the lights out because we don’t have any candy. But next year we’ll have our little guy to put in a clever costume.
Newton Streets and Sidewalks had a nice thought about Halloween being America’s Walking Holiday. There’s also a big Halloween Bike Ride in JP tonight, something else I will have to participate in future years.
I’ve never been too good at costume ideas nor execution, but here are 5 memorable Halloween costumes from my youth:
- Ghost with a pumpkin head – this was based on my favorite Halloween decoration and was a lot of fun to bring to life even though the wire frame of the pumpkin head was awfully poky to my own head.
- Leprechaun – a natural for an Irish-American youth with rosy cheeks and an Irish name. I did trip and tear my green pants before the night was over though.
- Vampire – I put my natural widow’s peak and sharp incisors to effective use.
- Linus – for a college party I dressed up as the Peanuts character I identify with most. If only my big sister were there to play Lucy.
- Mime – my friend Jenae always hosted the best parties, and once did a great Halloween fete with an Alice in Wonderland theme. For some reason I went as a mime, which gave me a good excuse to go to a party and not be chatty without being called a wallflower.
Boo! Happy Halloween.
An edit at the witching hour:
Just for fun I’ve scanned in photos of me in my Halloween costumes from various years. Sadly, the really cute ones of me as a child are at my Mom’s house.
Me as a Gumby from Monty Python
Me as Linus Van Pelt
Me as a mime
Scary, huh?
Panorama of the Mountains 