Halloween is fast approaching, as it does every year in October. Here is a breakdown of what I have done for Halloween in the different stages of my life:
Age 25-30…think of clever costume for Ellen’s Halloween show, party with Lucy and friends, cry at that sorry end of the Mets’ season
Age 21-25…drink beer, figure out at last second if I should wear a mustache to the bar, party even harder with friends
Age 18-21…college party with friends, drink O’Douls, think that I’m too cool for a costume
Age 13-17…get a really big pillowcase, go trick-or-treating with friends, slowly realize we’re getting too old for this, refuse to eat pumpkin pie forever
Age 9-13…dress as either Davey Crockett or a hobo, go trick-or-treating with friends, continue to dislike pumpkin pie
Age 0-9…pumpkin carving with family, trick-or-treating with family, begin to dislike pumpkin pie
That brings us back to the very beginning…Babs is entering phase one, and I think this is when parents re-discover holidays all over again.
This past weekend, we headed out to a Pumpkin Patch in Pasadena. It has not even crossed my mind to visit a pumpkin patch in the past twenty years. I’m pretty sure I even forgot that they existed. When Lucy first mentioned going to a pumpkin patch, I wasn’t sure what it was.
Well, for those of you without kids…a pumpkin patch is a gathering of pumpkins, haystacks, and scarecrows, where parents take way too many pictures of their kids (us included).
This year we’ll probably even go trick-or-treating with Babs, who will be dressed as Nemo. Maybe we’ll carve a pumpkin, and I’ll throw on my coon-skin cap. Back to the good old days, except this time I’m the dad.
In case you were wondering…I’m not going to miss dressing as an umpa-loompa, heading to Dimple’s, and singing with Mr. Belding. That guy eats pumpkin pie.