A Halloween Invitation

Halloween has changed -- not just over the course of history (which is its own fun story). I mean it's changed in my lifetime -- and not just because of global warming, peanut allergies, designated 'trick-or-treat' locations, etc. (which is not a fun story). I'm talking about my own experience with the day itself and how activities and attitudes change at each stage of my (or anyone's) life. The other big holidays - Thanksgiving, Christmas, Independence Day - have maintained a pretty consistent framework for as long as I can remember (and leave very little room for deviation), but for Halloween, the rules change as time goes by, and what was once a structured event coordinated by people older than I, slowly begins to present new options - a freedom of choice begins to emerge.

I won't bore you with an arbitrary list of all my past costumes, but I will make the observation that the trick-or-treat years are the pertinent years, and whichever aspects of the holiday you embrace during that time will determine how you process Halloween once society deems you 'too old' to participate.

So, what's on my awesome mix tape...

• The soft resistance of a pencil tip on the flesh of a fresh pumpkin.
• Increasingly shorter days provide an appropriately atmospheric cold darkness.
• Cardboard wall decorations that will haunt the daydreams of your adulthood without even trying.
• Learning more about your peers than you'd ever known based on their choice of costume.
• Trying to decide on your own costume, committing to it, and assembling it to perfection.
• The smell of cream makeup paired with the sound and vision of edited-for-tv Exorcist and American Werewolf.
• Marching through crispy dead leaves that stick to your cape, et al.

My last journey as a trick-or-treater was at age 13. I felt too old for this - its appeal had been waning for some time. Additionally, I was dressed as Alex from Clockwork Orange, and there wasn't one person who didn't mistake me for Charlie Chaplin.
"Where's your mustache?" they'd ask. That alone was symbolic of how this particular activity and my own interests were parting ways.

Throughout my teens I did little more than quietly embrace the changing of the season - that was to be my own private Halloween celebration. It was also during this time that cable channels began to reformat & it started to become harder and harder to find any horror cinema on as many channels. Coincidentally, home video was also reformatting - into the more-affordable DVD, which allowed me to start revisiting old favorites in a larger capacity, as well as discovering a buncha new stuff. It would be this outlet that would accompany my already-hectic existential schedule of merely 'feeling the day.'

In my pretentious 20s I'd spin Goblin's Suspiria soundtrack with a gallon of Carlo Rossi Sangria and stare into the abyss.

For the past five or six years, Jess and I consume decadently-sized burritos from a local sub shop and marathon (time-permitting) those "Halloween Day-Only" movies:
Halloween (1978)
The Fog (1980)
Halloween II (2009)
The Exorcist (1973)
The Lords of Salem (2012)

This sorta domestic bliss is about to lap itself as we enter a new, mutated version of what once was, and all that came before will be relived through the looking glass as our son starts the journey from the beginning. Once again, costumes will be coordinated, doorbells will be rung, candy will be obtained.
Or, will it be different? How will our boy absorb the festivities under the influence of two fanatics? At any rate, the routine is about to change yet again - and for a long time.

And so, to you, childless sinners and worshipers of the dark arts - how do you spend All Hallows' Eve? Is it as good as it used to be or do you struggle to care? Are you only in it for the pumpkin spice, or do you fill your McDonald's pumpkin pail with candy corn?
We wanna know what the season means to you: best memories, milestones, candy, decor, movies, music, makeup. Got pics, videos, links to your past? Talk about it here or on our fb page - and be graphic, cuz it's Halloween and you can be anything you want. And don't forget to wear your masks... It's almost time!

- Paul