The Ghost of Halloween Past (TTA)

TTA (it's been awhile)

This is the one and only picture I can find of myself on Halloween. (sad ha)

I want to preface what I'm about to say with a quote from my pal Dr. Phil. He says "there is no reality, only perception", so if by some freak of nature, my mom is reading this, keep that in mind OK Mom?

When I was growing up, I always had two choices for what I could be on Halloween. A clown or a witch. I aways looked at my friends who had the cool plastic ones from the box with the freaky masks and thought I wish I had one of those costumes. I distinctly remember wanting to be Casper the Friendly Ghost and Tweedy Bird, but I was a clown or a witch instead.

Another part of Halloween that I can recall, is when my little brothers came along. We were living in my great grandma's house on 3000 W. in Clinton (Cami, you probably know where that is). When we lived there, everyone had an acre or two of land, so houses were pretty spaced out. Anyway, my mom wanted us to be able to get lots of treats, but there just wasn't much of an opportunity in our own neighborhood. Often times, she would take us to 7-11 and load us up on penny candy rather than take us somewhere else for trick or treating. Looking back, I think that was a very sweet thing of my mom to do, but at the time, I would have rather collected the candy going door-to-door all night long. We did have this really sweet neighbor though, she would give us great big, home-made "scotch-a-roos" (peanut butter rice crispy treats). It was very kind of her. On our little section of the street, there were maybe 5 kids, and she did that for all of us.

I think those are prime examples of why I want Halloween to be so fun for my own children. I want them to be able to go out trick-or-treating and get a giant thing of candy that will last till Christmas. That's part of the fun!

I want my kids to be whatever they want to be, even if that means scouring the Internet for hours and hours trying to find the perfect costume, or bidding on several on e-bay, or making the costume myself if we can't find one. I want them to have great Halloween memories.

Our family (meaning Jason and mine) is big on pumpkin carving. My kids have been carving their own pumpkins since they were about 3. Jason's work used to do carving contests, and for about 5 years in a row, Jason won first place! I remember at my elementary school, we had pumpkin contests. My mom kicked butt on those.

So, as far as Halloween goes, the bottom line is I want my kids to remember how much fun we've had. I want them to remember the Witch Festival and taking a ride with the witch. I want them to remember our annual trips to Hee - Haws and the haunted hay ride they have. I want them to remember carving pumpkins. I want them to dress up as who they want to be. Whatever they are into. I want them to remember Jason and I dressing up. Like when Jason dressed up as Earl Hickey from "My Name is Earl". I want them to remember my crazy blue wig. I want them to remember how fun it is to be a kid, so that when they are grown-ups, they will know how to let their hair down and have fun. We ALL need to have a little fun don't we?

Please enjoy the song "Haunted" by Poe. I forgot how much I love that song! I'm going to go add it to my player a.s.a.p!