It was a dark and stormy night....

I am just a big kid when it comes to Halloween. One of my Halloween traditions is to watch the Charlie Brown Halloween show. I'm glad they still show it.

I guess I still hold on to it because we had such a great time with it when we were kids, as you can see here. The costumes were bought at T.G. & Y. where my older sister worked. I am the tall one in the clown costume, which I still have in the original box. (I know, I know, I am my Mother's daughter. Enough said.) I was thrilled to see these pictures when my sister sent them. That clown outfit was one of my favorite costumes. As we got older we more or less played dress up with dress up clothes. Oh yeah get this, the costumes cost 97 cents.

Aren't we just darlings!? The one thing I noticed in this picture is that we are each holding our very own jack-o-lantern. This is one of the little ways my Mother made holidays special for us. Now as an adult and I can realize what joy she had in it too. Those were the best Halloween bags there ever was. They came from T.G. & Y, too.

Thinking back I remember one year when Daddy carved a big pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern, placed it on the basket ball rim, that was nailed to the top of our garage, and put a blinking light bulb into it. My Mother used to count the number of kids that came to the house. ha Some years were better than others. I don't think I ever remember a Halloween being rained out.

Later as we got older we ran from door to door with our neighborhood friends. One year we did a quick run through the neighborhood and got back early so one of the Moms could take us for a surprise. She took us to a lady's house and she was dressed up as the best witch I had ever seen. She was so real like. It was great.

I went to my first Halloween party when my girlfriend, Marilyn, had a Halloween-Birthday Party. It was so much fun and I think I was only six. My parents dressed me up and I can still remember standing in the kitchen and Daddy putting on the finishing touches of my makeup.

Today, I still enjoy buying pumpkins, carving jack-o-lanterns, decorating the house - inside and out and most of all seeing all the little ones in their costumes. Yes, I will keep my Halloween traditions for a long time because they had such good beginnings.

Happy Halloween! BOO!