And all that good ish…now, clearly, I am not anywhere tricking nor treating, as per usual. When I was younger, we never really went trick-or-treating, cetainly  not around the neighborhood, although I do recall the alternative- collecting candy by going from store to store at a mall once or twice with my mom. I had a few costumes that I remember- big bird (you know, the ones with the mask and the plastic cape), a ghost (a last resort costume I was embarassed to wear b/c I was too old, but had to because I really couldn’t find anything else) and a disasterous attempt to make my own “oreo” costume when I was in elementary school (I thought I could wear all white for the cream filling and stuff two garbage bags w/ newspaper  and attach them to myself). The irony of that escaped me then, I chuckle about it now; ah….the innocence of youth. See, back then, I wasn’t dressing for Halloween to go trick-or-treating, but because we had Halloween parades and little parties at school and you had to have a costume- any costume- to participate. That was many moons ago.

I never realized how “big” Halloween was, especially among adults, until I moved to NY. I had only been living in Brooklyn for a month when I got caught up (literally) in the Halloween Day Parade in the Village. I was leaving a late class, headed to the W4 subway station when I met a crowd of costumed  fools celebrating. I fought my way against the grain only to find that the subway was closed…so I walked around aimlessly  until I found an open station and then had to figure out how to get back to Brooklyn (on the “C,” no less) from where I was…that was a fun night…(I have since learned that value of knowing multiple ways and subway lines to get me home…you should, too, if you don’t already).

I’m not into scary movies and I’m trying to cut back on all the sweets (although I cannot lie, I used to be a sucker for the pumpkin Halloween candy and I, admitedly, ate a whole bag of candy corn earlier this month) but in the New York Halloween spirit,  I got to thinking about what I would be for Halloween if I were so inclined to celebrate. And I remembered there were two (or three) people I wanted to be as a youth-

Rainbow Brite

I mean, seriously, how FUN does she look? I loved drawing and coloring in rainbows as a kid, plus I had the book, the sheets, OH! how I wanted to be a member of her multi-hued posse.

Rainbow Brite and Starlite

Rainbow Brite and Crew

THE book

The watch

Penny