Happy Halloween!
No, folks, your calendar isn't wrong. Today is the big day. That's right, it's Halloween. Oh, do I love Halloween. I wouldn't hold it up as high as Christmas, but Halloween still rules pretty hard. Anybody who says otherwise is either crazy or lying.
Halloween isn't exactly what it was when I was a kid. When I was young enough to enjoy trick-or-treating, everybody my age was warned over and over about the urban legends of people handing out apples stuffed with razor blades, and how we were going to get hit by a car if we wore dark costumes. And did any of that ever happen? Not that I know of. (Though since the crappy sidewalks in my podunk little neighborhood only went for about a quarter of a mile, thus forcing trick-or-treaters to choose between cutting through people's front yards or walking in the street, that "get hit by a car" could have potentially occurred.) I have no clue if people still deliver these messages nowadays, but I really doubt that parents or other authority figures are still warning kids about the dangers of bladed apples and vehicular manslaughter. Besides, most of that is common sense anyway: Make sure your candy is actually candy before you start eating it, and don't run around in the street like a jackass.
And nowadays, the costumes have advanced so much farther than what I had when I was little. Back in that fargone era between 1987 and 1992, a lot of the costumes that I remember were pretty cheaply made. They were pretty much a crappy plastic mask with only a tight rubber band to hold it onto your face, and a smock made of plastic that would probably create a poisonous gas you if you tried to melt it. And these smocks didn't even look like what they were supposed to be. Instead, these stupid things just had a picture of something on it. Like if you wanted to dress up as Yoda, you'd have a cheap Yoda mask and an outfit that had a picture of Yoda on it. Maybe the Star Wars logo would be stamped on it too. But seriously, though, you'd be better off just walking around town in your regular, everyday clothes with a "Hello, My Name Is" tag stuck to your chest. It'd accomplish the same thing.
To get a better idea what I'm talking about, just check out this link. And honestly, I can't say I know of any of my generation who would dress up in any of these costumes. I mean, if you're going to dress up like Scott Baio, why not go with Baio circa Charles In Charge instead of Joanie Loves Chachi? At least Charles In Charge wasn't a lame spinoff of Happy Days.
The costumes that you can currently purchase off store shelves for a respectable price and not a whole lot of effort have improved so much over the last twenty years. I'm also really happy to see the old standbys of Freddy Krueger gloves and Jason-inspired hockey masks are still around, as well as the modern standby that is the Scream mask. It's really weird to think that the Scream mask has reached the same Halloween plateau as Jason and Freddy. The Scream trilogy's legacy kinda pales in comparison to Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street (three movies between 1996 and 2000, compared to a combined nineteen movies since 1980), but I can't help but notice that the Scream mask has become a big Halloween thing. And I'm not going to argue with somebody dressing up as a horror movie villain for Halloween, because that sort of thing is great.
But Halloween is here now, so I need to go out and enjoy it. If only Macy's could do a Halloween parade like they do for Thanksgiving...
Halloween isn't exactly what it was when I was a kid. When I was young enough to enjoy trick-or-treating, everybody my age was warned over and over about the urban legends of people handing out apples stuffed with razor blades, and how we were going to get hit by a car if we wore dark costumes. And did any of that ever happen? Not that I know of. (Though since the crappy sidewalks in my podunk little neighborhood only went for about a quarter of a mile, thus forcing trick-or-treaters to choose between cutting through people's front yards or walking in the street, that "get hit by a car" could have potentially occurred.) I have no clue if people still deliver these messages nowadays, but I really doubt that parents or other authority figures are still warning kids about the dangers of bladed apples and vehicular manslaughter. Besides, most of that is common sense anyway: Make sure your candy is actually candy before you start eating it, and don't run around in the street like a jackass.
And nowadays, the costumes have advanced so much farther than what I had when I was little. Back in that fargone era between 1987 and 1992, a lot of the costumes that I remember were pretty cheaply made. They were pretty much a crappy plastic mask with only a tight rubber band to hold it onto your face, and a smock made of plastic that would probably create a poisonous gas you if you tried to melt it. And these smocks didn't even look like what they were supposed to be. Instead, these stupid things just had a picture of something on it. Like if you wanted to dress up as Yoda, you'd have a cheap Yoda mask and an outfit that had a picture of Yoda on it. Maybe the Star Wars logo would be stamped on it too. But seriously, though, you'd be better off just walking around town in your regular, everyday clothes with a "Hello, My Name Is" tag stuck to your chest. It'd accomplish the same thing.
To get a better idea what I'm talking about, just check out this link. And honestly, I can't say I know of any of my generation who would dress up in any of these costumes. I mean, if you're going to dress up like Scott Baio, why not go with Baio circa Charles In Charge instead of Joanie Loves Chachi? At least Charles In Charge wasn't a lame spinoff of Happy Days.
The costumes that you can currently purchase off store shelves for a respectable price and not a whole lot of effort have improved so much over the last twenty years. I'm also really happy to see the old standbys of Freddy Krueger gloves and Jason-inspired hockey masks are still around, as well as the modern standby that is the Scream mask. It's really weird to think that the Scream mask has reached the same Halloween plateau as Jason and Freddy. The Scream trilogy's legacy kinda pales in comparison to Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street (three movies between 1996 and 2000, compared to a combined nineteen movies since 1980), but I can't help but notice that the Scream mask has become a big Halloween thing. And I'm not going to argue with somebody dressing up as a horror movie villain for Halloween, because that sort of thing is great.
But Halloween is here now, so I need to go out and enjoy it. If only Macy's could do a Halloween parade like they do for Thanksgiving...
posted by Matt Sutton at
2:51 PM
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