My mind has been so preoccupied lately that I almost forgot about Halloween. Almost, because everywhere I went this weekend there was at least one person with some part of a costume. The sailor on the subway, the barista in bunny ears, that bum outside of the Duane Reed in a cape. 

Halloween has never been a favorite holiday for me and I think, like most things, it goes back to childhood. My mom thought that sugar was the worst thing ever for children, after cigarettes of course. Growing up, dessert was always fruit and if we were extra lucky, maybe we got sesame candies from the health food store. I actually wish I was kidding. Our house gave out mini boxes of raisons and bags of pretzels. We only ever got a couple of trick-or-treaters before the word got out and all of the kids went straight to our neighbor who gave out king-size snickers. We had left over healthy snacks for months. 

My mom had to think of some brilliant scheme so that we could dress up and collect candy like normal children, but not immediately come home and inhale all of those delicious kid-size chocolates. She came up with her own holiday, The Great Pumpkin’s Birthday. Apparently, The Great Pumpkin from Charlie Brown celebrated his birthday on Halloween and conveniently,  all he wanted every year was all of our candy. We got to pick a couple of pieces to keep for ourselves and the rest were handed over selflessly so that The Pumpkin could be happy. In return, he gave us a present too, it was usually a book. 

I never thought to question my mom’s reasoning (obviously she raised us well) and I still don’t know if this October Holiday rendition of Charlie Brown is accurate because I’ve never had the patience to sit through the whole special, but my instincts tell me it probably goes a little differently. 

 Happy Halloween and a Happy Birthday shout out to The Great Pumpkin, that sugar stealing bastard.