Halloween: My First Two Halloweens

I've been doing an autobiographical tumblr for a little while now. It's a sort of chronological pop culture appreciation (it's heavy on the pop culture)/historical context/personal exploration blog that's been giving me the chance to go through old photo albums and scan old pictures that I haven't looked at or thought of in years.

I've gone through the first few years of my life, and here are the pictures of me in my first two Halloween costumes.

This is my first Halloween as a trick-or-treater, in 1978. I had turned 2 in July. According to my Mom, she wanted to wait another year to start taking me out, but I was just too fascinated by all of these kids in costumes coming to the door over and over again. My parents dressed me up in what were then my favorite jacket and cap (I'm one of those cap guys), hiked up the legs of my pants and I was a baseball player. (By the way, I still have this cap. It's in a trunk with a lot of stuff from my childhood. You know, mementos and schoolwork and stuff.)

For some reason, my favorite detail is the beach pail I've got for the candy. It's just such a little kid thing. I used to love pails. I had one of those plastic pumpkin pails forever (they still sell them today). I remember a couple of years with plastic bags, though, and when I was in (I think) sixth grade, I graduated to a pillow case. I think seventh grade was my last year trick or treating. Seventh or eighth. No, eighth. It was eighth grade and I remember instantly feeling like I was just too old.

Here I am on my second year of trick-or-treating. The Scooby-Doo mask appears to be one of those Ben Cooper, Inc. masks. Don't know why I'm not wearing the smock, except they were always pretty lame. Even here, as a 3 year-old, I just didn't like wearing them. Beside me is my sister Jayne, setting a lifelong precedent of being a witch on Halloween. (Though to be fair, at nine months, I'm sure she didn't pick this mask out herself, and she probably only wore it for the picture.)

Both of these Halloweens were in Killeen, Texas, when my Dad was stationed at Fort Hood. I don't remember it very well, but I do remember being Scooby-Doo for Halloween. (Side note: jeez, look at that hoodie. The hoodies I have now are THE SAME COLOR.) I remember that we drove somewhere to go trick-or-treating, too.

I don't remember that couch at all. But I do remember the walls being like that. How strange.