Halloween Past and Present

I dug up this photo taken in 1985. At that time all three of us worked for Safeway. A few of my current readers also worked at Safeway during that time (Al, Linda and Patrick). And Burt is still there this day! Back then that was the dream job, making $4.75/hr. bagging groceries and pushing carts while getting full medical and dental coverage. But I think half my paycheck was going to auto insurance and car stereo upgrades.

That picture was taken on the 3rd floor at CIBC. We were dressed up for Halloween at Ichthus. As you can see, even Uncle Harry and Wingate participated (yes, that really is him!). I don't know what our church policy is now, but back then we treated it just as a night of dress-up. The next year I was dressed up as a heavy metal headbanger with crazy hair and eyeliner (unfortunately I don't have that photo – we had gym night at Mills College if any of you remembered). I even won the prize for most originality!

So last week my anti-Halloween friend emailed me (she reads my blog). She said that I got them all wrong. They DO celebrate, sort of. They won't let their kids dress up or go out, but they do stay home and pass out candy (so their kids won't eat it). They say it's better to give than to receive anyway. I say good response. And like every other loving wife, she blames her husband for all the rules in the house. (BTW, I enjoyed all the comments received. But for those of you who asked about their identities, I'm not telling. So stop asking. They're nice people. Really they are. I'm not kidding. Really...)

Then I have another reader that always comment to me via IM because he wants to stay anonymous. We'll just call him Matt :) Anyway, he says Halloween is an opportune time to pass out tracts and get to know your neighbors better. I think that's a great idea! Unfortunately we have too many unfriendly Asian buddha-lovers on our street that don't talk to anyone. Not that I'm using that as an excuse, but um yeah, I am.

My ancient Chinese coworker says this is how you can tell if your buddha-loving neighbor hates you. They will install a little mirror facing your house, that way all the evil spirits will bounce off theirs and into yours. The way you counter is to install a bigger mirror facing back at them. The ultimate deflector is to install an actual wok. That's what he said...

Back to Halloween. Colby was Superman this year. Unlike last year, now he's actually tall enough to ring the doorbells so I can just wait by the sidewalk. Here's what we do. I carry an extra bag to empty out his candy because it gets heavy fast. Then when he shows up at the door, they see his empty bucket so they give him more! Score! Works all the time!

Dustin no longer joins us. He's a big second-grader so he goes out with his buddies straight after school. I didn't even get to see what he wore this year. Hopefully the other parents took photos. Colby went with a classmate from his preschool so he had a nice companion. At this age he still doesn't mind hanging out with girls. We'll see what happens next year.