It is 15 October. There are 16 days until Halloween.

Let’s face it, when you’re a kid, Halloween is all about gettin’ that candy. And the only way to get that candy is by dressing up, hitting the streets, and earning it!

Am I describing trick-or-treating or the plot to Angel?

Looking back at some photos from my childhood, I have to admit my costume game was not that strong. Most times, my get-up was just a notch or two above Charlie Brown’s multi-eyed “wardrobe malfunction.”

That’s okay, though. I don’t remember anyone hassling me because they couldn’t quite grasp that I was going for “Michael Myers in Halloween II” and not “reject from Mummenschanz.”

Let’s take a look at some of my Halloween costumes...

Classics one and all. The plastic mask/costume pairing was a rite of passage. The edges of the eyeholes were razor sharp. There were more kids with bleeding eyes walking the streets on Halloween night than in a Lucio Fulci movie. The plastic cover-all was…interesting. Between the mask and cover-all, I don’t know which made you sweatier. Kids needed all that chocolate at the end of the night, because they probably dropped ten pounds walking around in store-bought Arrakan stillsuits. And no one – and I mean NO ONE – ever pointed out how odd it was to be dressed as Luke Skywalker in a costume that said Star Wars on it. Luke must have worn that costume in one of the deleted Tosche Station scenes.

This might be my favorite one. That is my dad’s navy uniform. I look like I am ready for my close-up in Battleship Potemkin. My sister looks to be in pain.

You know when you’re a kid and you’re climbing a tree and your mom says to get down before you break your arm and you say whatever and then you fall out of the tree and break your arm? Yep. Halloween was almost ruined by my inability to listen to my parents. There’s a lesson there somewhere. I was supposed to be a vampire, but I look like a seasick Shawn Cassidy. My sister looks like she is ready for her close-up in Halloween III: Season of the Witch.

Okay. Not sure what happened here. I loved Halloween II as a kid, and this was my attempt at pulling off a Michael Myers. If you look closely, I have a fake wound on my right hand (why?) and what I think is supposed to be a scalpel. An utter failure, but it still looks better than Michael Myers in Halloween IV. I seem to remember someone suggesting that my sister should have worn devil’s horns along with the angel costume, but you know…1980s…Satanic panic…it would’ve ended badly.