Mr. October

WOO HOO! October is here! October is here! Can’t you just feel the excitement!!!!

I know what you are thinking. No one really gets excited about October, save a few baseball fans. Most people think of October just about like they do of February, only without Valentines day. However, I see October as much more than that.

October is the month that we get the Red River Revel, the State Fair, and, of course, my Anniversary (the wife would beat me if I didn’t slip that in there). We get some awesome football games, both in college and the NFL, and great tool sales at Sears. But the best thing about October is Halloween!

Halloween is the coolest holiday ever, except that it really isn’t a holiday because I have to work, and it doesn’t start till after dark so you really can’t call it a day either. Anywho, people dress up in ridiculous costumes, attend parties, and play tricks on one another. And the best part is getting to work on those Halloween costumes with your kids.

It is a blast! Kids will spend hours laboring over what they want to be and spend days making a costume, only to change their minds at the last minute. Why? Because “so-and-so” is going as “such-and-such” and they either a) want to dress like “so-and-so”, or b) would never ever want to even consider dressing like “so-in-so”, because they hate him.

Thus, as a parent, I get the wonderful job of doing that last minute magic, and changing that Barney costume into a fairy princess. It’s not so hard, as long the child is willing to accept that there really were dinosaur princesses. That gets a little tough to sell after they turn 10 though.

Ever turn a pumpkin costume into a boxer? Tell them it’s George foreman in his later years. A pirate into a Harry Potter? Tell them his glasses broke and poked his eye out.
A witch into a politician? Well, you can insert your own joke here. ‘Nuff said.

The list is endless. Every year I get to do these amazing transformations, and every year I swear I will never do it again. I tell the kids this is the year they have to decide what they want to be and stick with it. And without fail, at least one of them will have a sudden change of heart, give me a sob story, and I find myself trying to make a clown suit into Thomas The Tank Engine.

The truth is, as frustrating as it is to try to rebuild a costume before it gets dark, I love doing it. I like the rush of the deadline (darkness), the feel of the hot glue gun (I got one that will even bond steel), and, of course, the blackmail (“If I do this, I get first pick out of your bag”).

Actually, I would never pick first. I swear it. Maybe.

So to all you parents out there who spend the time to make these costumes, I solute you. We do it because we love our children, and want them to enjoy this experience and use their imaginations. And heaven knows they can come up with some really wild costume ideas!
By the way, does anyone know what a “zombified alien sumo wrestler” looks like?