The Halloween spirit

If you have not yet decided on a Halloween costume, you might want to hurry up. You can’t wear that Elvis costume every year.  

In this issue of CITYVIEW, we do our best to help you capture some of that Halloween spirit that you may not have had since you were a kid. Don’t worry. It’s not too late.  You still have some time to get that costume together. 

Choosing a costume as a kid was not high pressure, as most of us simply wore whatever our parents had for us. For me, it was usually a hand-me-down from my siblings. I really didn’t care. As an adult, though, the pressure in choosing a Halloween costume intensified. I could no longer strap on a plastic mask and call it good.  

Through the years, my wife and I had some costume hits and some costume misses. The biggest miss was in our younger years when we dressed as mummies, wearing white long underwear tops and bottoms and covering each other with strips of white bed sheets. It seemed like a great idea — until we had to go to the bathroom.  

Another year, we went with a group and dressed as the “Gilligan’s Island” crew. Jolene and I were Mr. and Mrs. Howell. And, yes, I carried the teddy bear.  

A few years later, we tried Goldilocks and the three bears with another couple. It didn’t work. We looked like a little girl and three giant mice.  

Jolene and I also did stints as the farmer and the cow, the hunter and the deer, the Lone Ranger and Tonto, and Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. One year, when she was pregnant, we went as a priest and a pregnant nun. In hindsight, that was not a good idea. 

The best costumes we ever had, though, were when we dressed as the couple that was throwing the party we attended. We pulled that one off twice.  

I encourage you to join us and get into the Halloween spirit this year. Attend a costume party or event, or just dress up and entertain the kids who are trick-or-treating.  

And if you struggle to come up with a costume, well, there is always Elvis. ♦

Shane Goodman 
Editor and Publisher
CITYVIEW
shane@dmcityview.com
515-953-4822, ext. 305
www.dmcityview.com