This is my favorite time of year. I love Fall. As a little girl growing up in Florida I fantasized about leaves changing, jumping into a pile of those leaves and lighting a Jack O’ Lantern on the front stoop. For those of you who aren’t aware— Florida has no seasons, there is no raking up leaves, there are no change in leaf colors and if you left a carved pumpkin outside for more than 10 minutes it would mold and shrivel until your carving resembled a shrunken toothless old man.
Moving here after a lifetime of sun and fun I was and am thrilled to discover Autumn. The air turns crisp, the leaves turn bright green to yellow and then amber. The first fires of the season are lit and the nostalgic ‘smores appear. But what really gets me pumped around here is the Southern Pines downtown Trick or Treat Fest. There is nothing more charming than seeing hundreds of kids dressed up as Superman, Mermaids, Darth Vader, Maleficent and so many more; while their parents try to tamp down that crazy glint in their eye that is plainly after one thing only, CANDY…
Over the past few years I have become very excited about this event. My first year, I dressed up as a Witch- pointy hat and all. My eyes were painted with green cobwebs and of course I was dressed in all black with a purple feather boa (because when else can I wear a boa?). Turns out I frightened the children. Apparently being 6 ft tall with pointy lace up heels and a 3 foot witch hat was too too much for the kiddos. Honestly, after a day of work in full costume I sort of forgot how insane I looked so when 5:00 rolled around I bent down and I whispered, “Hello my Pretty” to the first teeny Princess Fairy and saw her eyes fill with horror… I was at first confused and then realization dawned. I think I forged and indelible memory on that sweet little thing…I can still hear her screams in my sleep…
The other thing I did that year was attempt to glue giant false eyelashes on for the ultimate witchy effect. However, do to the the fact that I am a dumb dumb and I had no idea what I was doing; I ended up gluing my eyelid to the sensitive flesh right below my eyebrow which made blinking virtually impossible. So in addition to my height, all black outfit, and scary makeup I also had one blood-shot angry eye staring down at them.
*Interesting fact no matter how terrified the poor children were of me they still managed to grab the candy from my outstretched hand before fleeing for their lives. Even with the psychological pain I inadvertently inflicted I still had a blast.
The only down side is handing candy out to kids in jeans and a t-shirt who are just a little too old for dress up, but still young enough to have a bad candy monkey on their backs. I also find it discouraging when I have to coax a “Trick or Treat” out of a youngster. I mean Halloween is a delicate ecosystem. I’m dressed up for 9 hours in a ridiculous/amazing costume with my eye accidentally glued open and enough sugar to fuel a small city, the least one can do in return is give a hearty “Trick or Treat” and slap some makeup on their faces for my troubles! Am I crazy? Don’t answer that…
Nevertheless, this past Halloween, bearing all of my previous mistakes in mind I decided to dress up as Mother Nature. Nothing scary about Mother Nature right? I purchased a big flowy skirt and had this idea to glue butterfly wings next to my eyes. Still remembering my incompetence from last year, I hired the pros Molly and Megan at Retro. I showed up like a bag lady with feathers, nests, butterflies, and twigs all shoved into my oversized tote. I emptied the contents onto their tray and exclaimed, “Have at it girls”. Megan gingerly picked up a few of my trinkets and after some contemplation she grabbed a bunch for feathers and sticks and said, “ You know Ive never had a client tell me to just start shoving random items into their hair before…” She trailed off, but not before I gave them both my full vote of confidence. Two hours later I looked like something out of Alice in Wonderland. Wings on my face, feathers in my hair and a big skirt which I glued the leftovers on to… I have to say I have never felt prettier.
A few weeks earlier I mentioned to my staff Jacki and Courtney about the throng of trick or treaters that take over downtown and mentioned that I would be dressing up and they were welcome to join me, but it was absolutely not a job requirement. Bless them, they showed up in adorable costumes. Courtney the Doe, Jacki the Cat and I Mother Nature. We had a blast! And pretty quickly we all kind of got over our embarrassment of being completely made up and in full costume at 11:00 AM.
By 5:00 the kids descended and it wasn’t long before the line was all the way down the block. Tiny little cartoon characters as far as the eye could see… that it is until the candy ran out. Two years ago I ran out of sweeties very early on. Thankfully, my husband was able to run over to the Sunrise Theater and purchase a bunch of candy from the concession stand. I felt like quite the aristocrat handing out full sized candy bars. The children looked at me like I was a Queen, it was magical…until once again the candy was gone and I was left a pauper. The kindly Lisa dressed as a cute little mouse from Swank was able to tide me over with a supply of hershey kisses which I sparingly began giving out one piece at at a time until my husband whispered from the back of the darkened shop,”Shut the door you are humiliating us!” Last year I bought 15 deluxe bags of assorted candies and chocolates and I still had to shut the door before the last little mummy passed by. Totally embarrassing… So this year I am going 20 bags strong (which sounds ridiculous because if no one shows I am stuck with a lifetime supply of candy as well as early onset diabetes). I am thinking about dressing up as a bird this year. With a shop called Mockingbird it was only matter of time I expect. So mark your calendars and show up with your little ones or if you just want to see a grown lady in a bird costume. Either way you wont be disappointed…
mockingbirdonbroad 