Happy Halloween!

I don't 'celebrate' Halloween as I once did. It is a day for the kids. I'm older and my children have all left the nest. I don't remember ever attending an adult Halloween party, the gatherings of adults harkening back their fun times as children dressing up but now with candy typically replaced with adult beverages and costumes developed mindfully for an unspoken contest of creativity and provocation. 

But I do have great memories of Halloweens gone by, both as a kid myself and then, years later, with my own children.

There were the pumpkins to carve, an opportunity to show your children your knife skills, or at least pretend that you possessed those skills. The carving challenge for me was to try an replicate what I watched my own father do with a pumpkin annually. I never possessed the artistic talent of my father so my carved pumpkins had faces that were simplified versions of those that adorned my parental home. For my late wife, Karen, the carving meant there were pumpkin seeds to roast, a tasty treat I never could quite appreciate as she, and I think the kids, did.

And of course, the kids needed costumes. In our house, we stayed away from the plastic store bought variety, opting to make our own. Well, at least my late wife Karen did the making of costumes, knowing that fashion was never one of my strong suits. In 1988, it was a giraffe, a princess and an ewok that left our house in search of treats.