It seems like the holidays come around earlier and earlier every year. I'm not just talking about the Christmas decorations in the stores in mid-September (grrr...), but I mean the months fly by fast. Before I even realized what was happening this year, summer was over and Halloween was everywhere.

I recently thought about some Halloweens gone by, and thought some of them were worth sharing. I wish I could remember more of them from when I was really young; it's all kind of a blur of sugar highs and the blackout that follows. However, I do have a few memories of being younger:

-There was the one old German lady who always came to the door on Halloween and said "I don't have any trick-or-treat." We would always leave muttering how we ought to play a "trick" on her, and wondering why she even came to the door. This happened year after year. It never quite dawned on us that the real question wasn't "why does she even come to the door?" but rather, "why do we still go to that door every year?"

-The old guy who lived next to my friend, Jesse, always gave out a full size candy bar and a little bottle of juice. Since Jesse had a whole closet full of costumes, we could hit that same house 3-4 times on a good night.

Speaking of which, a fond Halloween (related) memory occurred one summer when I was about thirteen years old. Jesse and I located a large nest of yellow jackets in his back yard and decided to properly address the issue. Wisely waiting until one day when his mom wasn't home, we geared up in snow pants, jackets, gloves, boots....and Halloween masks. I was the green warlord, while Jesse was the yellow boogey man. Out into the summer heat we went. With hairspray in one hand and fire in the other, we made quick work of those angry insects. I think that when bees sit around little bee campfires at night, they still tell the scary story of the monsters with the hairspray.

More specifically, I remember...

1995: I wandered around the neighborhood dressed as a guy in an outhouse. Serious. It was much like this picture. Took some effort to make the costume, but it was way worth it considering the looks I got from some of the old people in the neighborhood.

1997: this was my senior year of high school, the year you are supposed to have a lot of fun. However, this wasn't a fun year for me. I was employed at the local grocery store, and didn't always get along with the management. They insisted that I work on Sundays; I refused to do so. Consequently, they tried to stick it to me once in a while. So this Halloween, I was scheduled to work 8:00 pm-midnight. The schedule seemed to be precisely made so I would miss all the fun. I, of course, handled this with the maturity and dignity expected in a professional environment: I got irate and went dressed as the serial killer Jason. Hockey mask, ripped levi's, fake blood on my shirt...and a real axe (I don't recall whether I specifically obtained my dad's permission to take his axe to work with me). I was somewhat surprised that my manager didn't ask me to tone it down a bit, but then again I was carrying a weapon and he wasn't. We didn't get a lot of customers that night, but there were at least a couple old ladies who came in and did their shopping. When I went to them and politely inquired, "MAY I HELP YOU TAKE YOUR GROCERIES OUT TO YOUR CAR!," they politely declined.

1999: I had been on my mission for four months this Halloween. I actually performed my first baptism as a missionary that very morning. The nice lady we were teaching, Diana, did not want to get baptized on Halloween (or Dia De Los Muertos), but asked us to get her taken care of ASAP when her husband started to become weary of the idea. Interestingly, it was at the moment we were about to enter the font that she burst into tears and said "my husband told me he hopes I drown when I get baptized!" I did my best to assure her that the the depth of the water was probably insufficient to cause her to drown. However, sensing that there might be an underlying issue besides how deep the water was, I went and asked one of the nice sisters there to intervene, and all went well.

We had been advised that, in this area of Chicago, it was a good idea to spend the evening inside. We spent that night with some other missionaries who lived nearby, eating cardboard pizza and telling stories. One of those missionaries was Jared Hess, who would later write and direct the movie "Napoleon Dynamite." I think he based that character partly on me...

2001: I was invited to attend a party for people in the Institute Choir at the U. Knowing there would be college girls there (Colleen being one of them), I decided to attend. It dawned on me at about 4:00 pm on Halloween that I didn't have a costume, so I went over to the fabric store and bought a big piece of black fabric, then a mask from the grocery store. I took the fabric home and, using a pair of scissors and an office stapler, fashioned it into a grim reaper costume. I went to the party, played their sophomoric games, and hung out with Colleen quite a bit that night. She was dressed as...some kind of Chinese lady or something of the type. Bright red costume.

One year later, in 2002: Colleen and I were married on October 26 and were in Disneyland on our honeymoon, including Halloween. The last ride we went on: the Haunted Mansion. Interestingly, there was no line to get on any of the rides that night.

2004: At this point, Ben was about 2 1/2 months old. Colleen obtained a frog costume for him. We have a picture of Ben wearing this costume, and he does not look happy. It's amazing at how early an age a kid can develop a sense of discomfiture. We've come to term this the "sad little frog" picture.

2005-2008: I basically remember having lots of pizza around for the past few Halloweens, especially as we have stuck closer to home so we could take Ben around the neighborhood. I like to get the pumpkin shaped pizzas from Papa Murphy's. Who's in this year?

By the way, I had to buy a chainsaw this past summer when our tree split in half. I've had some cool costume ideas...