HALLOWEEN

​Sweet Erin works at the bakery on the days I do not. Tomorrow she will be one of the many families flooding the streets of the Village during the annual Halloween parade hoopla. Erin is enormously gifted in many ways; among them is her ability to fashion intricate costumes for herself and her three little boys. I envy Erin’s craftiness.
 
You might say I have always been a much better idea person than a crafty person. Sadly, my interactions with a sewing machine were limited to Junior High School Home Economics. Showing greater promise with the culinary portion of the curriculum, I failed miserably attempting to construct a jumper to be worn on “Jumper Day.” (Thanks, Rommy for preventing a serious wardrobe malfunction by replacing the zipper the night before its unveiling.) Constructing a costume with needle and thread was never my calling. Clearly, crafty can skip a generation.
 
Reminiscing about Halloween with Master Master and Blondilocks, it occurs to me that my repertoire of costumes came from the dark recesses of the attic on Woodland Terrace. It was a veritable costume shop of vintage clothing, passed down from two sets of grandparents. The hats alone were award worthy, not to mention a cedar chest filled with accessories ranging from elbow length gloves to opera glasses. If an integral part of the costume was frail or lacking, Rommy would dash off to Fabric Land for a few yards of remnants and then fabricate a one-of-a-kind costume. In most cases, this stitch witchery took place between the evening hours of October 30th and the early hours of October 31st. No pressure.
 
What goes around comes around. Admittedly lacking in seamstress skills, my talents blossomed  in creative hot-glue gun artistry. Many a late night was spent hot gluing Halloween costumes. One year, it was the Tooth Fairy’s tiara, embellished with nickels and dimes plus a pair of dangling toothbrush earrings. Another Halloween called for large letters spelling out C-A-N-Y-O-U-H-E-A-R-M-E-N-O-W on a life-size cell phone, complete with a foam headdress of reception bars. One of my finest moments was recreating the board game Operation on a pair of leggings and matching sweatshirt when I was down to my last glue stick and Staples had closed for the night. Thankfully, for many years Master Master was content to wear his soccer uniform as a costume. When he felt he was too old to go trick or treating, he simply fished through his sister’s stash of candy until he found a bag of Twizzlers.
 
Watching the festivities through the bakery window is a touch bittersweet. This year’s Halloween parade will no doubt feature incredibly creative costuming. I have already caught a peek of two award-worthy costumes, outfitted by our very talented early-to-rise baker, Baylee. Nothing says Happy Halloween quite as brilliantly as Archibald ”Archie” McBiscuitbutt and Oliver “Ollie” Sir Snorts-a lot sporting their well-tailored jerseys.
 
May your Halloween be as sweet as a bag of Reece’s Pieces.