By Brian Argabright
The 830 Times
If you’re a fan of dressing up like your favorite cartoon character, something scary or something else, this is your weekend.
Halloween descends upon us Sunday, but there are a lot of activities going on around town before then. From various businesses handing out candy, including Southwest Texas Junior College doing a drive-thru trick or treating Saturday from 4 to 6, to the Monster Mash in downtown Del Rio to a Fright Night event taking place Saturday night at the civic center to the actual trick or treating Sunday evening, there’s several chances to show off your costume to a lot of folks around town this weekend.
It’s been a while since I dressed up for Halloween. The problem is I’m not very creative in coming up with costumes. I choose the simplest rout. Since becoming an adult I’ve been a luchador, an ancient Roman complete with toga, a Scottish golfer (yes, I wore a kilt), a fantasy football player (complete with wizard hat) and a party animal (not my best effort).
As a kid, it wasn’t much better. I don’t blame my parents. They did their best. They actually listened to me but when in doubt it was old faithful – plastic mask with two eyeholes and a plastic smock emblazoned with some recognizable character.
Despite my best efforts I only remember two of those particular costumes. One was an odd mish-mash of Star Wars characters that included a Gamorrean Guard’s head and an Ewok’s body (that’s what happens when you wait until the last minute because your kid doesn’t let you know you can dress up at school until noon of that same day. That was on me).
The only photo I was able to find of me as kid on Halloween was me rocking a Boba Fett costume before it was cool to be a Mandalorian. The silver and red mask looked more like a Cylon from Battlestar Galactica than the galaxy’s most dangerous bounty hunter and the sweet plastic smock, which was
probably flammable so I was kept away from any random open flames, featured Boba Fett on a green and yellow top and silver legs. Of course you can see my jeans and what I assume were Buster Brown shoes under my costume, so if Han Solo tried to run I would probably give up mid-chase due to my feet hurting.
I don’t remember my haul, but I hope it was worth the effort. I do remember there was always a wide variety of candy with my favorites probably being M&Ms and Snickers. I also assume there were plenty of Tootsee Rolls, the chocolate-flavored taffy that always gummed up my teeth because savoring candy took a back seat to me trying to ingest as much sugar as possible before I eventually crashed out.
Those were the good ol’ days. Everyone, please be safe when you’re out and about this weekend. Drivers, please be extra careful. If you don’t celebrate Halloween, please enjoy the weekend as well.
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Brian Argabright has been a journalist for more than 25 years. An award-winning writer and photographer, he has covered sports, features and much more during his career. Contact him at drnhsports@gmail.com
