Halloween for grown-ups

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays (right up there with "Sweetest Day"... NOT!) I love it because it has always been, at least since I was a kid, pre-commercialized. It was always about dressing up (maybe as Your Favorite Cartoon HeroTM). Maybe as a box of cereal. Maybe as an adverb (make the letters "LY" on the back of a dark shirt with masking tape -- instant costume). Why? To get the free candy. Gimme the free candy. Plot the route that brings me past the most houses that give out good candy.

Maybe the marketing starts earlier or is heavier now than it was 30(ish) years ago... But, at its heart, Halloween is and has been about one thing: socially sanctioned bad behavior.

For kids, it's an easy sell. Dress up goofy, scream, get candy. But I want Halloween, too. I'm lucky enough to have a grade-school age son who loves weird, complex costumes. So that's good, 2nd hand fun. And I still get a kick out of carving jack-o-lanterns. But... I see, coming down the pike, a time when I won't have a young kid and will need to work at keeping the spooky spirit alive. How's that gonna happen? I want to be badly behaved in ways that are (relatively) safe and fun.

Well, time to get creative, I guess... What about a zombie theme party? Jamaican mixed drinks.Voodoo music. All kinds of zombie movie options. Brains. Zombie games.

Or a make-your-own costume party. Or a make-your-own historical costume party. Or one of those "host a murder" parties. Or something to do with pirates.

I don't know, for sure. I know that I'd like other people to give me some ideas.

So when all y'all creative people out there think about what to write about, promote, link to, collect and share about Halloween... remember us old folks. We like to have scary fun, too.