More Trick than Treat

By Oscar Barajas, NewsTaco

I have always been a fan of Halloween. It is one of the few holidays that I have taken seriously, outside of Arbor Day. I was introduced to Halloween when I was six years old. As a child I grew up in a cultural vacuum. It was my first year back from Mexico. We lived in the kind of neighborhood, no one ever attempted to trick-or-treat in. The old neighborhood was poorly lit, and the residents usually took their children elsewhere that was not nearly as depressing.

However sometimes you would get a pack of greedy kids, who wanted to brave the myths and eventually wandered down the street no one was willing to visit. My mom was not ready for these children, so instead of giving them candy, she decided that she would make some enfrijoladas for them as they waited – and yet those enfrijoladas came with a price those trick-or-treaters were willing to pay.

My mother thought it was a good idea to coax a teenager in a gorilla suit into the house. I was vulnerable enough to believe that he was an actual gorilla. After all, he did have a banana. That was all it took to convince me as I cried until I started dry heaving. After everyone in the room had their laugh, the boy under the gorilla suit emerged and began to tell me about the magic of Halloween. The thought of collecting treats, door to door was enough to get me to stop crying. I had to prepare myself for the future.

I was ready for 1984.

My sister and I were begging for costumes since September. My mom bought costumes for us at Zody’s Department Store. I remember that my sister decided to be a princess. I thought I would be one of the characters from my favorite video game. I was the mighty Centipede from the video game with the same game. The costume was brilliant. It consisted of a centipede mask, and a plastic smock that had the word “Centipede” written across the chest. My father was severely disappointed.

“You had your mother spend seven dollars on that piece of plastic. What are you, some kind of worm?”

I was better than a worm. I was the Centipede.

In retrospect, being the Centipede was a horrid idea. I honestly thought that I was going to win the prize being awarded by our school during the Halloween parade. I wanted to wear my costume underneath my clothes but my mom would not allow it. Instead, she packed it inside of my backpack. I dressed up during lunch so I could be ready for the parade. It was a hot day and my teacher, Mrs. Gardner had the class sit in the pavement. It was a hot day, and the kids from kindergarten and 1st grade were ahead of us. All of a sudden, I noticed that the plastic smock was starting to bond with the pavement. The back of my smock was melted and was beginning to look like chewing gum. My regular street clothes started to show. Needless to say, things looked pretty bad.

By the time I started making the rounds around the track the smock was more of a bib. The Centipede mask was still in place. I never did win the award for best costume. I wish there was a lesson that I could have learned. There probably was, but I was too stubborn to learn it. Instead I was back the following year with another smock and another mask, this time in tribute to He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

[Photo by  stevendepolo]

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