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Inimitable costume-maker Amy Murray is to thank for these homemade costume gems. Because it still takes me back to a time when nothing was more important than going trick-or-treating, when the most pressing order of business for the day could be deciding how to design a Jack-O-lantern, and any night spent trick-or-treating was a good night, even if you got mugged. Those were the days when time stood still. Or so I thought. We all get older, of course. Eventually, it becomes un-cool to put on a silly costume and go door knocking for sweets. Time is better spent hanging out with buddies, getting lost in music, getting lost in the smile of that girl you thought didn’t know your name. These things happen. Time marches on, and when it does, most of us are unaware that it’s dragging us along with it, and that we’ve left a few things behind. I don’t even remember my last year of trick-or-treating. It kills me to say that, but it’s true. I don’t remember it. I don’t remember my last Halloween costume as a kid, or who I hit the streets with. Those memories are gone. So as I watched that home movie, I felt nostalgia, I laughed, I cried. But I also felt terrified. It’s sort of like those horror films 26 • october 2012 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
when you can sense that the killer is going to strike. The minor chords of that foreboding music are playing, and I can tell there’s going to be a death. Except, in this case, it’ll be a lot sadder than some fictional co-ed biting the dust in a moment of cinematic gore. Soon enough, Emma, and eventually Sam, won’t go trick-ortreating. They’ll say they’re busy, or they’ve got plans, or they’ve got better things to do. And then it’s over. Another piece of their youth will have vanished like a fun-size pack of Skittles. Do me a favor. If you’ve got kids on the bubble, kids at that age where it could go either way, where it’s too close to call ... Do whatever you can to convince them to do it for one more year. And then get out there with them. Wear a costume. Embarrass yourself. Make sure this Halloween isn’t ordinary. And make sure they, and you, will remember it for a long, long time. M