Note:  Sorry, I’m late posting this, because I have been writing ALL day… just not writing my blog!  I also wanted to do something for Halloween, so it had to wait until the late hours of the 31st.

Well it’s official. Gone are the days of cute little people, in my home,  dressing up and going out to collect pillow cases worth of candy.  My kids are all grown up!  This was our first year with no Trick-or-Treaters, on all fronts. No one came to our door; alas, all that candy is still in the bowl; and this was the first year ever, that none of our kids were going out, dressed up. Admittedly, we’ve been begging our fifteen year old to discontinue this for three years, but somehow when he finally did, I wanted to make him dress up and go out for one more year. I tried the “our foreign exchange students have never done this” approach, but Denmark looked at me like I was crazy, and China looked at me like he had no idea what I was talking about. Either way, I am the only one who dressed up. (Look at these cuties!  ^^ In 1998, we had a pirate (Middle Man); A lion, who was scared to actually go up to the doors (Little Man) and a Principessa Amidala (star wars), with Grammy.   In 1997, ^^ we had a Mummy and Hippy.)

Of course I did not go Trick-or-Treating, but I did take all three of my teens, and two others, (yep that’s 5 teens!) downtown to see the Thriller Dancers. They perform each year in Maritime Park, with zombies, Michael Jackson impersonators, and performers that dance to mostly Michael Jackson, but also do some other songs. This year, Beyonce’s All the Single Ladies (if you don’t already know it, you probably do in fact live under a rock) had the crowd bobbing too. It is an amazing night and while they said this was the last year, I am hoping that someone revives it again next year. Our town is full of characters anyway, but on Halloween they all feel entitled to be out there dancing in public; and it is out of this world fantastic!

Every year I go over to a friend’s who lives in one of those neighborhoods that I always wished I’d grown up in. The one where all the kids live, the houses are close together and at Halloween the candy is really good! Each year, I make Mummy wrapped hot dogs for dinner; I wear the same skeleton earrings that a little boy named Tommy Gianaris gave me, 23 years ago (!); I roast our pumpkin seeds; and then I head over to my friends, to share one cocktail and scare her trick-or-treaters. I love to swing the door open and scream really loud. It gets the middle schoolers every year. After scaring one little guy a couple of yeas ago, I am now careful to check to see that I can see the tops of their heads through the door’s glass, before I yell. Each year I bring my friend one Mummy hotdog and she shares whatever she made. This year it was yummy pulled pork.

One of the reasons we started this tradition was because Little Man and his friends wanted to trick-or-treat in the “good neighborhoods.”  We tried several over the years, but found my friend’s to be pretty good. The bonus was that I could hang out at her house; eat candy and whatever she cooked, and then take my kids home when it was over. This year, no one wanted to go door to door. So, I put on my Amy Winehouse get up, packed up a Mummy dog and went over alone.

(<–Moammar Gadhafi and Amy Winehouse) I got to wear the Amy get up to the most amazing Halloween party on Saturday night. A good friend hosts it in a fantastic barn, out in the county. This year they had a haunted house as well. They have a giant mermaid/pheonix suspended from the rafters; huge spider webs everywhere; a live band that does karaoke;  and costumes that knock your socks off. We had WAY too much fun, and I can tell you no more. What happens out in barns in the county, stays in the barn. Hubby and I went as Moammar Gadhafi and Amy Winehouse. Hubby was too damned good at Moammar!  Next time I say that he’s a dictator, you may not laugh.  Amy might have looked like this, if she’d lived another twenty years and put on some weight. I figure you can only milk it for so long, and I paid for the black wig, so I wore the Amy get up twice this year. This year it was edgy, next year it will be passé. My fifteen year old,  thought it was in terribly poor taste. “She was a very talented, young person, who just died Mom!”  Ahhh, darling Little Man. It is a story as old as time, and that is how edgy Halloween costumes keep coming around.  (Oh please, stop now. Don’t bother with any how can you be so insensitive comments. Don’t do it!  I am kidding people!  Sort of.)

<– (One Asian Pumpkin)   This was the first year that China and Denmark got to celebrate an American Halloween, so I bought them both pumpkins to carve. It was not Denmark’s thing (boo, hiss) but China really got in to it. I have to say that his pumpkin did look a tad Asian. He also carved CHINA on the back side. We all found it very amusing. Then, we headed downtown and we all danced at the Thriller scene. Amy got asked to dance with an adorable Max from the Wild Things, not adorable child, adorable late 20’s just 30′ something. Who knows now a days, they all look like kids to me!  We danced for about five minutes, and then I told him I had to take my teens home. Hey, it’s Halloween!   (One good, old vomiting American pumpkin. And Little Man says I have poor taste!?) —>

For years I told my kids about my childhood Halloweens in Scituate. It was almost always cold, but it was a crime to have to cover your costume with a warm coat, so we tried to work out costumes that could be layered. When I thought it was sexy (like 10 year old sexy, in the 70’s; minds out of the gutters folks!) to go as a gypsy, with a silky white top, I froze my patooties off!  We walked until our feet bled, really. There was no way any self-respecting Trick-or-treater went home with less than one very full pillow case. If you were really tough (or greedy), you filled one; brought it home to dump out, and then went to hit a few more houses. We had to be pulled off the streets when all the houses were finally black, sometime WAY past the eight o’clock curfew that my kids grew up with. I went with Little Man one year and actually found lights going off at 7:30 in one neighborhood, feh!  Ten was not unusual in my day. (And we walked five miles in the snow, uphill, both ways!)  My brother and sister and I would then stay up in our rooms, and trade candy by flashlight. For the record, my little sister stole my candy every year!  It took ages for me to finally prove it, when her bed began to crackle, from all the wrappers hidden in her sheets. She grew up to be a fine mommy herself, but I wanted that out there, officially for once!

(<– Dressing up is way too fun. I refuse to quit, just because my kids did!  Oscars 2008)Anyway, I figure it’s now time for my own kids to start creating their Halloween stories. Now that they have all officially retired from the business of Trick-or-Treating (though I have little doubt Middle Man is at a wild costume party, as I type!); they will figure out what to tell their own kids one day. I hope to continue finding reasons to dress up, just because I love to. The Oscars are always perfect for that, but Halloween is extra special. This year, as we say back East, was a wicked fun night!

Images from the Thriller dance performance. Cell phone pics (dancing) and yes I got permission:

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