Morning Watch Monday: Costumes and Creativity

The orange plastic pumpkin with the black handle was cute and all, but I needed a pillowcase.

All good trick-or-treaters know this hack, and there’s a variety of advantages: A)There’s more room for more candy; B) You can run sooo much faster to the next house by clinching the pillowcase; and C) There is nothing like the drama of holding the pillowcase upside down over your head when you return home to release the candy avalanche onto the floor below, displaying your spoils to the jealous, defeated onlookers.

Maybe candy means too much to me. I still feel that story in my bones.

Costumes were merely a means to an end for me with Halloween. The better the costume, the better chance of getting more candy if I impressed the neighbors. One year I felt confident as I donned my red cape and tight blue shirt with Superman’s “S” across the torso. I was ready, and I was going to be extra fast because of the get-up. Yet there was one problem, the costume came with a big plastic mask that was not well ventilated. It was not allowing the developing sweat/slobber concoction my body was producing to go anywhere but all over my face! Not to mention the white wire strap was limiting my circulation and cutting the tops of my ears!

The mask had to go. I threw it to the ground and pressed onward until the final house had been plundered. I confidently and victoriously stood in the street with my mom, waiting. Has anybody seen dad?”, mom asked. “What? Well where is he?”, I thought. “It’s dark out! I’m so selfish I was thinking about myself all night, and now dad has lost his way in the neighborhood and we don’t know where he is!”. As I anxiously stood around, I began to hear yelling and growling coming from a dark, dirt road.

Suddenly, a man with a scary mask came out of nowhere and headed for us! We all screamed and started running, but he caught me. Nothing I could do. As I tried to wrestle away I turned to see who had me, and it was some Evil Superman person! I continued to scream until the man grabbed the mask and lifted it off of his face to reveal it was only my sweaty/slobber faced dad playing a joke on me, in my own mask.

I cried for a while after that. It’s funny now, but I still feel that story in my bones.