What are you, six?

By Jake Magraw

As you all probably know, Halloween is approaching. Some of you might consider it to be your favorite holiday, while others are like me—it’s your least favorite holiday. It’s not the concept of Halloween that I don’t like.

I think the whole idea of little kids getting to dress up like their favorite superhero or character from their favorite TV show is fine for young imaginations. The problem I have with Halloween is what people—specifically teenagers—have made it into. For example, I can remember every night before Halloween when my mom would tell my sisters and I about a specific night she went trick-or-treating as a young child.

It started like any regular October 31 night; she went around collecting candy, and then in one split second, all the candy she had received was gone. She remembered the moment like it was yesterday. She descriptively recalled how some teenage boys waited behind a bush to scare her and then took her candy. I have heard stories about these kinds of acts occurring even today, but instead of just scaring kids, they physically hurt them, sometimes with air soft or paintball guns. It’s stories like my moms that make me despise Halloween. Don’t get me wrong—I like the pumpkin pie, carving pumpkins and handing out candy to kids.

Another thing I find annoying/ridiculous is when older kids, I’m talking 13-18 years old, participate in the tradition of trick-or-treating. Don’t they realize that they are too old to run around, in often times normal looking outfits, taking candy from strangers? Leave the candy for the kids, ages 0-12, for which it’s actually intended.

Onto the part that I dislike the most about Halloween: the “costumes.” For some reason, people think that Halloween is a day where dressing up in offensive and inappropriate outfits and costumes is completely fine. If I had to dress up in a costume, I would choose something that I’ve have always wanted to dress up as, like Batman or Superman, not a beer keg or a prison inmate. I have seen some pretty raunchy costumes and I think that ruins the point of an ensemble.

But when I mention my problem with costumes, I’m mainly talking about the girl’s/ women’s costumes. It’s strange how most girls seem to find the costumes that have the least amount of clothing as possible. If you want to dress up like a nurse, I understand, but last time I checked, nurses didn’t wear mini skirts and sheer T-shirts that show your bra. Seeing girls in costumes like that ruins Halloween for me. However, I know there are a fair share of guys that love the “holiday” for this exact reason.

When did Halloween become the day where stealing candy from kids, dressing half naked, and wearing a police officer costume, with the badge name of “Oliver Clothesoff,” is perfectly fine? I think it’s the opposite. Save that stuff for stupid costume parties. Let Halloween be the day when you dress up like a cartoon character, a famous actor or your hero. Maybe when I see it change back to that, I’ll start liking the day. Since it seems like there’s a very slim chance of that happening, I think it’ll stay my least favorite holiday…forever.

 

It’s all for fun

By Fred Cheun

Oh Halloween! How do you bring back so many fond memories of nights where stomachs ached and swelled with the consumption of too much candy? Remember the days when you dressed up in your little costumes running around your little neighborhood forcing your neighbors to give you candy? And God help them if they didn’t have any for your friends.

To me, that was always the best part about Halloween. Besides filling up on your favorite candies and chocolates, kids like me and my friends would raise all sorts of hell. For us, that was the true spirit of Halloween. To let loose the hounds that had been cooped up within ourselves for so long. It gave us an opportunity to unleash fear upon the younger kids and be the undying horror of our annoying neighbors.

Among the many exploits my friends and I committed during this short-lived reign of terror, there are a few that I have committed to memory. Memories that have given me a good laugh when I look back on them and remembered with fondness the trouble we caused. Although I am not at liberty to discuss some of the more “less than legal” activities me and my friends have done over the past few Halloweens, there are a few that I can share with you.

Five or six years ago, a few others and I were out dressed in ski masks and paintball gear looking very dangerous. We were out looking for trouble—hoping to scare the living daylights out of a few unsuspecting kids. We carried with us a couple of paintball guns, hoping to nab a few of our rivals that live in the same neighborhood.

After wandering around for an hour or so, not finding any kids that would easily be scared by us, we focused on finding those aforementioned rivals. We stumbled upon them in the darkness and it turned out they had the same idea in mind. After a tense standoff in the middle of the street, with houses flanking us, someone fired first and the whole affair turned into a huge impromptu paintball match—the neighborhood becoming the battlefield.

Every one of us got pegged, as we were firing at point blank range. We ran for the nearest cover, which was incidentally one of our neighbor’s cars parked on the curb. The sound of paintballs splattering on the windshield drew out the owner of the vehicle out of his house and everyone, including our rivals, thought that we were in for it.

As all of us contemplated running before the neighbor called the cops, the neighbor surprised us all. Instead of calling the cops, he and his son came out with fully automatic paintball guns and joined in on the match. We returned fire, as did our rivals, and for the next five minutes we stood our ground while the neighbors took cover in their doorway, taking potshots at us.

When it was all over and our ammunition had been expended, the neighbor invited us in for drinks and pizza. Our now exrivals and my gang became close friends.

Looking back on this event, I know it was it was a foolish thing to do. If that neighbor had not been a paintball fanatic, we would have surely been arrested. But whenever Halloween comes around and my old gang comes over (that now includes those former rivals) for a couple of beers, we always reminisce about the “Battle of Halloween” night.