It’s May. Wouldn’t you know, I’ve been meaning to write about Halloween? Last October marked our third Shasta Halloween. We got about 450 trick-or-treaters, which was way down from 2010. I think the problem, or perhaps the financial upside, was that it fell on a Monday.
Jake was a lion, of course. And Baby Nate was a tiger, a zebra and a lion, for various reasons I can no longer clearly remember. I think it was one part Mommy indecision and at least two parts scratchy costume rejection. Daddy was Handy Manny. I was a lion tamer.
It was the first time Jacob discovered what Halloween was really about. The year before he didn’t realize we were handing out candy… that was amazing. Anyway, I’ll never forget this past year when we took JJ to Pat and Clarence’s house next door for his first trick-or-treating encounter. Pat held the basket of candy out and there was an awkward moment where Jacob wasn’t quite sure what to do… Do I take some candy? Is she offering me the basket? His little optimistic self went with the latter. It still makes me smile.
We spent a good half hour taking him around the neighborhood, coaxing him to approach our scary neighbors (the guy with the life size Harry and the Henderson Bigfoot head still sticks in my mind). He would startle and jump back as creepy costumed kids passed us on the sidewalk while Natesy just hung out, dressed as the typical strolling zebra.
Halloween sparked Jakey’s enduring interest in the Big Bad Wolf. And it began the last seven months of wardrobe changes, or as I’m sure he’d call it: Costume R&D. Each morning his classmates may be greeted by a cowboy, a Giant (the baseball kind), Super Jake (the cape kind), an engineer (the choo choo kind), Fireman Jake (just the boots), Jake the Knight and of course, the always menacing lion.
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