October brings a bit of joy to my life. I start to look forward to my favorite holiday, Halloween. Not that I hate all the other holidays, I just happen to love this one the most.
It’s the one holiday that lets me dress up and pretend to be someone or something else without a grownup telling me to stop being silly or to stop daydreaming. I didn’t have a great childhood, so I did a lot of daydreaming!
I’ve lost track of all the different costumes that I’ve worn for Halloween over the years. Wearing costumes didn’t stop as I grew older. As an adult, if my boss would let me wear a costume to work on October 31, believe me, I would be dressed up! It was an excuse for me to not have to wear a uniform for a day.
Of course, being a self described “nerd,” I read any Halloween-related book I can find. Two of my favorites are Missouri Ghosts by Joan Gilbert and Ghosts of the Ozarks by Bruce Carlson.
Then there are the movies. I now go through my yearly Halloween ritual of making a bowl of popcorn and grabbing a bottle of vanilla Coke for a night of movies. Pumpkinhead, Aliens, Ghost Ship and Men in Black are on my list to watch this year. I don’t have kids to take trick or treating and I’m pretty sure the neighbors don’t want to give their candy out to an adult, so I look forward to this ritual now. Of course, I’m so short, I wonder if I could dress up just to fool the neighbors. I bet I could get a good laugh out of that.
I am still a kid at heart. I hope that is one thing about me that I never want to change.