I’ve never been one for dressing up for Halloween, but I must admit I am surprised to read and see that a lot of people want to go as Bernie Madoff. That’s seems disturbing to me, tantamount to seeing a Hitler or Satan character walking around. The humor is lost on me.

oops, I hit submit before typing, my bad.  Anyway one year I won a prize at a party for my costume which was…I wore a full length lacy black slip and I had a gold sash (like the Miss America contestants) and across the sash in gold glittery letters was Freud.  I was a freudian slip!

My cat Trixie wants to go trick-or-treating as a goldfish. I’m having a heckuva time convicing her she’s a feline, not a human child. Wish me luck.

I’m not much for dressing up either, I think my last costume was Harpo Marx, 35 years ago!  Oh wait, I think I did have one Halloween about 20 years ago when I tried to vamp it up a bit, but I try my best to forget that when I can.

I do have a couple of friends that can’t imagine a Halloween without a costume.  More power to them.  It’s fun to walk down the street and see people enjoying themselves.  

I will say though, that in the town I recently moved away from, the hippie costume in the picture simply wouldn’t work - you’d blend. :-)

The last time I dressed up was many years ago. A friend was giving her annual Hallowe’en Bash, and I knew I had to go all out since she really did thing up to the max. So I spent a LOT of money on a Cowardly Lion full head mask. Then I found a long blue cape and made a spear and went as Bert Lahr in the scene where the Lion, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow don uniforms and sneak into the Wicked Witch’s castle to rescue Dorothy. I had to glue the mask so it wouldn’t slide around, and once I did that, I couldn’t remove it until after the party. After the glue set, it dawned on me that I would be driving up the Merritt Parkway in my VW bug in full daylight. The spear was so long that I had to open the sun roof and let it stick out, and off I went. Since it was the midst of rush hour, I got quite a few bemused looks from other drivers. I was starting to feel terribly conspicuous when a car drew alongside and the driver honked at me. It was Bozo the Clown, accompanied by Scooby Doo.

After that, I felt much better! Had a great time at the party, too.

In college, my blonde friend and I (also blonde), accompanied two of our good friends, African American guys to a party.  We dressed in all white, they, in all black.  Us girls walked in the middle, they, on the outside.  We never broke formation (except to use the restroom).  We won the award for the most campy costume—a double stuffed oreo.

Just an idea, you can find e-card at Happy Halloween 2009 for halloween. This site allows for anyone to upload their own picture so they can send it out to friends and family with a message as a greeting on Halloween.

I saw an ad on TV for Chiller Theater on Halloween Night.  Now that’s a blast from the past.  I used to love Chiller Theater on Saturday Nights when I was a kid.  My brothers and sisters and I would make a huge bowl of popcorn, shut off the lights (atmosphere) and watch the absolute worst B movies—oh, the horror!  (I was the youngest, so I usually fell asleep before the movie was over, but I still remember it fondly.)  The network should bring back Chiller—the kitsch value alone is better than most TV offerings.  Bring it back! 

Our family’s entire Halloween costume repertoire consisted of three choices: hobo, gypsy, or ghost.
It’s not that we were lacking in creativity, awe were simply lacking ideas. All the kids in the neighborhood wore homemade costumes and there wasn’t a Martha Stewart–type around for miles. Or decades. Our single, solitary, Halloween goal was to amass candy. And, lots of it.

My industrious older brother would do his first dash around the neighborhood as a hobo, replete with  burnt cork smudges for special effect.  An hour later he would return home to change into his famous ghost costume, which consisted solely of a white sheet.Upon returning home he would dump the pillowcase bulging with candy and share!

One of my all time, classic, favorites from college is so simple.  I wore a cardboard box decorated to look like a "brick".  My date carried a trowel and wore a carpenters apron with the words "brick layer" on it.  We danced all night to the song "She’s a Brick House…"!

I am Lutheran and Halloween is linked with Reformation Services for me. I would always have to run home, change clothes, and dash to fill my sack, before leaving for church. I remember the time Halloween was on a Saturday and I was ready at 9a.m., but alas my mama let me know you had to wait till 4pm.  Aha, Luther!  I didn’t understand for years why you spoiled by treats..