Halloween Approaching Faster Than A Speeding Broomstick

I've always loved Halloween. Not because of the sweet tooth I developed as a child, filling my pillowcase every year with caramel popcorn balls, chocolate squares, and those orange-wrapped toffees that instantly bonded to your teeth, sticking to the back of your incisors until nearly Christmas. No, I love Halloween because it's that one (or more) day(s) of the year that you can dress up as silly, seductive, or crazy as you like, and for that one time of year, no one will question your sanity.

Every year the costumes seem to get more and more outrageous--the skirts get shorter on the nurses' costumes, the witches get scarier with every extra mole (that is make-up I hope), and the materials you find at the store can turn your home into a more convincing haunted house than ever imagined in your childhood nightmares.

Now I've probably forgotten the true history of Halloween, and after forty years of celebrating the annual ritual myself I've probably got enough of my own history, but I can tell you that I never get tired of this spooky time of year, even if I'm forced to dress up like a donut, or a box of wine, or a Bingo card (yes, there are real bingo card costumes). Now if my Bingo-playing grandma were still alive, I could see her fitting herself up in similar Halloween garb at the senior's centre, were she so inclined.

Now there aren't so many days left in the month of October before Halloween arrives, and although there are animatronic jack o'lanterns available at the electronics store that could make a teenager pee in his Marilyn Manson costume, I think I'm going to instead grab a couple of regular pumpkins and carve myself up another year of traditional Halloween fun! Happy Halloween!