Halloween

An article I wrote for the newspaper where I intern.




Ah, Halloween. The candy, the costumes, the decorations, the costumes, the frights…. And did I mention the costumes?

I’ve found that as the years have gone by, less importance is placed on who gets the most candies (at least a full pillow case) and the best candies (Twix, I say, Twix!) and more attention is paid to whoever wears the most interesting and original disguises. This proportional turnover between candies and costumes begins midway through middle school and gains the most momentum during the last years of high school and throughout the majority of college. Fortunately, or should I say unfortunately, I am at that costume interest peak and studying at a University that lays claim to one of the most notorious Halloween-ing hotspots, Franklin St.

For those of you that requiring clarification, when I say original and interesting disguises, I usually mean revealing (and at times funny; sometimes those two qualities go hand in hand, at least in the minds of the college student demographic). Come on, did you honestly think that I would keep mum about this very obvious trend for the ladies (and sometimes the men) to don less clothing than usual around this time of the year? As the oh-so-dependable source Wikipedia so accurately states, Halloween is basically an “excuse to wear particularly revealing costumes, showing off more skin than would be socially acceptable otherwise.”

It’s rather hard to argue that point, especially for college students. How many Bo Peeps had I seen last year neglect their sheep while flirting with shepherd boys? How many bunnies looking for their Hefners? How many Catholic school girls skipping mass? Too many, I say! Of course, the guys can’t be let off too easily either. I saw a couple of Adams clad in leaves and Borats in frighteningly skimpy one-piece bathing suits last year, and those weren’t even the most strange/funny/offensive costumes out there.

Wandering through Franklin St. during last year’s Halloween (I myself was an 80’s aerobics instructor), I realized that for many college students, names and numbers have replaced tricks and treats. For myself, taking photographs of outrageously clad friends and acquaintances has become the purpose of the night. Ever lasting memories, laughs and blackmail with one quick shutter click? I’m up for it.

Sometimes, I miss the old days when the race wasn’t for the sexiest or the most outrageously offensive getup. The days where the costume parties lasted from 6 to the 10 in the evening and not 10 in the evening to 6 in the morning. The days when your friends feel like they might vomit from candy and not alcohol. But then I see some frat guy in a diaper and a bib sucking on a pacifier and I realize, as I snap away with my trusty camera, that I’m quite content with the present.