The other night, my wife ordered my daughter's costume for Halloween. This seemed funny to me--ordering a Halloween costume. Why, in my day, we trucked on down to the good ole' Ben Franklin store, sized up what was available by looking through the plastic on the front of the costume box, and then picked out the best one from what was available on the whole two shelves stocking the item. Ordering costumes? Different time and age, I guess.
Online ordering issues aside, I'm happy to report that my four-year-old will be living out her curiously strong fixation to vampires on this Halloween, a fact that should make her incredibly happy and me just a little more disturbed than I already was. She latched on to vampires when she was all of about two years old, and it's been a growing obsession since. Why, I don't know exactly. Maybe it's the teeth. Maybe it's the cape. Maybe it's the white skin, long fingernails, bat wings, or weird voice. Maybe it was a "Scooby Doo" episode she saw. She does after all have an equally strong fixation on that hound that I find just as disturbing. At any rate, I'm looking forward to where she takes this, whatever dark recesses they may be.
There was a few years a while back when I was on a roll with Halloween costumes. Instead of going the traditional route and buying one at some store or another, my older daughter and I went from thrift store to thrift store piecing a costume together that was original and from our hearts. I loved those years. I felt like a kid again when my mom did the same for me, helping me make a costume. Even if the results were decidedly mixed, I covet those memories. The year she helped transform my boyish face into rock drummer extraordinaire Peter Criss of Kiss, well, that was special, and I kicked Halloween ass. The year she turned me into Pinocchio, however, complete with a long nose fashioned from a piece of paper grocery sack that was taped to my nose, well, that wasn't so kick-ass, especially because I was 10 or so, and wearing red rouge on my cheeks wasn't my idea of an All Hollows Eve night out with the fellas.
But I digress. What my mom showed me then was that you didn't have to spend money to make something cool and noticeable. I may be biased, but my daughter came alive those years when we worked up incredibly cool Elvis and Joker costumes. They weren't great because we bought something patterned after The King and Batman's nemesis. They were great because we were motivated to use our own imagine to pattern a costume based on our love of The King and The Joker. I'm only sorry to say that my daughter lost faith somewhere along the way in my costume-making skills and began to venture down the dark path of department store Halloween outfitting. Oh, lost youth.
I think half the excitement for kids around Halloween is dreaming about which larger-than-life character they want to escape into, if even just for one night. My daughter has been plotting this year's costume since about last February, fluctuating among a dragon, vampire, Iron Man, Spider-Man, zombie, pirate, and so many other possibilities. Literally, every night for at least seven months straight, I've had to tell her a "spooky" story at bedtime because no other type of story seems to do. These stories are always either prefaced or followed by, "Dad, I think I know what I want to be for Halloween" conversations.
Truthfully, I'm shocked she was able to settle on one. Just last week as we walked the aisles of the toy store, she changed her mind literally five times in a minute's span looking at what was on the shelves. Typical for every kid, I guess, but considering this one has seemingly given little else much thought in recent months, I was a bit surprised. I'm sure, though, she's going to be just fine with being a vampire, and I have no doubt, she'll put all her energy into diving into character and vamping it up, as it were. I only hope she comes out of character once Halloween is over.
The only remaining question now is what do I want to be for Halloween this year? I could be Frankenstein like I was in second grade, which still ranks as my second all-time favorite. My favorite would be the full-body skeleton outfit I had going all the way back to kindergarten. That thing was straight-up sinister, and every costume has paled since. I could break out my purple and gold Luchador mask and turn myself into a pro rassler, but I've done that already. I guess more daydreaming is in order.
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