Memories of Halloween

            I can't recall a time I didn't celebrate Halloween. I find it a very exciting holiday and it's too bad it isn't celebrated in In India. But every year, when Halloween is on its way, I like to remember the years I celebrated it in the US. And now that I have a blog, I thought I'd share these memories with you guys...

1. Costume Preferences: Halloween is usually associated with scary costumes like ghosts, vampires, and mummies. But I have always preferred costumes like my favorite girly characters and cute animals. In kindergarten, I was Aurora, my favorite Disney princess. My friend was Snow White (her hair was also similar to that of the princess). We had also gone to a photo studio that year to have our pictures taken in our costumes. Then, in first grade, I was Gabriela from High School Musical. (I was obsessed with those movies at that time.) Once, I was Silvermist from Tinkerbell. And another time I was a Japanese princess. In fifth grade, I was a cute little bunny.
2. Buying Costumes: I would spend hours every year shopping for a wonderful Halloween costume. One friend or the other would tag along when I went to buy one with my family and I would accompany them while they bought theirs with their family. One time, I went with my BFF and we switched jackets for the whole time we were there.
3. Halloween Parties: at Brookdale Elementary School, parties were organised by  the parents and teachers. One of these  parties was the Halloween party. There were games, music, fun decorations and delicious snacks. I always looked forward to this every year.
4. Decorations: We weren't the type of people who would carve jack-o-lanterns from real pumpkins. instead, we plugged in a plastic one with a bulb outside our house. We would also put up decorations on the bedroom windows from inside which would light up when they were turned on.
5. Trick-or-Treating: We had school on Halloween but right after school, it was time to start getting ready to go trick-or-treating. At around five, my friends and I along with our moms would first visit the houses in the neighborhood of our school. Then we would go to another society where one of my other friends lived. Year after year, we would always end by trick-or-treating in my own neighborhood after it got dark. (I lived in Kingspointe, Naperville.) I always had a friend with me and my dad and bother also joined.
6. Candy: After collecting all the candy we possibly could've, my brother and I would count our candy. We sometimes traded because my brother was allergic to peanuts and so I ended up giving him a Hershey's chocolate bar for peanut M&Ms. At school, everyone would bring in some of their Halloween candy in their lunch for dessert. 

Here are two incidents I want to tell you about...

• This one is actually quite funny and is really silly when i think about it now. In fifth grade, when I was a bunny for Halloween, my mom made whiskers on my cheeks with a Sharpie (which is a permanent marker). My friend told me that there was no way the marker would come off later. i totally believed her and freaked out. She was wrong, as I later found out.
• This one is quite serious which happened on Halloween when I was in fourth grade. Someone came and told us that a kindergartner at Brookdale had died. More specifically, the six-year-old girl had been murdered by her babysitter along with the family's two dogs  and the babysitter's own son. AND THIS HAPPENED ON HALLOWEEN.  you cannot imagine the state I was in. Actually, we got this news during the day, so it didn't sink in right away. But after everyone started talking about it, I didn't really feel like going trick-or-treating later that day. (I did though.) the next day, I couldn't even go to school. This incident had continued to haunt me for two weeks and every time we passed the house (which we had to on the way to school), I would feel uneasy. Gradually, I stopped being scared by this whole thing that had happened.

so, these are the memories I have of Halloween. I hope you enjoyed reading about them.

Until next time...(Which I hope is soon)

-K Glamour