Fall is my favorite time of year. The crisp air, just cool enough to be comfortable and maybe require a light jacket, but not the bitter frozen temperatures of winter. The sound of dried, fallen leaves blown by the wind. The strange orangey glow of an autumn sunset. The smell of fall is indescribable, but one that is always one that is the most indelibly tied to memories of haunted houses, costume shopping, and playing with my Freddy glove replica.
I’ve love Halloween and since I was a kid. I always dressed up as something (minus about two years in high school and the four years of college). I can’t remember them all, and there were a couple years where we had to skip trick-or-treating. One notable incident occurred when I was 5 or 6. Living in Las Vegas, it rained horribly and drowned out the annual Halloween excursion. Instead, we rented Nightmare on Elm Street 1 & 3. As a 5-6 year old, I was terrified and it had a lasting impact. I mean I couldn’t even be safe ASLEEP according to that film! I always credit that experience to my current stoicism. I was scared of essentially everything for the next 2-3 years. And have never really been scared since…
The times missing trick-or-treating were rare, however, and most of the time my sister and I went through the neighborhood, dressed as SOMETHING, collecting our bounty, and being scared by houses with good displays (one kid dressed as Jason, stood perfectly still, then ran after kids when they got close!).
Unusually, I never dressed up as monsters or anything scary. I was always something fun or goofy. In the 80s, it was all about fun. Here are some classic 80s costumes from my Halloween past! Some of them may be out of order, the dates weren’t always clear, but it’s mostly right!
