Trick or treat and a costume dilemma

I looked like a real-life pirate. I just needed a wooden peg leg and I would’ve looked like the real thing. Without the leg, I still looked pretty darn good.

I had a black eye patch and a beard that covered much of my face, but that wasn’t all. I wore an old wig that my mother had picked up somewhere in her travels and a red bandana. I had a knife and sword in my belt and wore black boots.

I looked like the real deal. To top it off, no one could tell who I was.

Trick or treat

When I was ten or eleven years old, I dressed up as a mischievous pirate for my church’s Halloween costume competition. No one could tell who I was. I would’ve won the competition, but my mother had offered to drive our neighbor to the event and she ended up letting the cat out of the bag.

In any event, I loved the costume. As a parent now, I like that we came up with it on our own. Kids don’t make their own costumes much anymore. It takes too much work.

Of course, Halloween is big business. I read the other day that the National Retail Federation expects sales of children’s costumes alone to exceed $1.2 billion.

My own kids tended to prefer superheroes, including Batman and Superman. They also dressed as a storm trooper, a power ranger, a witch, and a zombie over the years.

Halloween has come a long way

My wife and I don’t get as many trick or treaters at our house like we used to in the past. When my kids went trick or treating we used to joke about the cool neighborhoods and the ones that weren’t so cool. It wasn’t based on the size of the house or even how rich or poor the people were inside. It was based completely on what kind of candy they gave out at the door. As much as I hate to say it, our neighborhood must not be very cool anymore.

No matter how it falls, I’ll still be ready in a few days to hand out the candy. I haven’t dressed up as a pirate in a long, long time, but I just might have to come up with a new costume to celebrate.

Of course, I might pass on the beard. I vaguely remember my pirate beard being scratchy all night long.