Throwback: Year 4

In some respects, it is like JT was born knowing he would be an only child.  His imagination was often his favorite companion and around the age of four he became the king of costumes, the better to aid his imagination.  That year, Santa brought him a pirate costume and he loved it at once.  Over the years, he had several more pirate costumes but this one started it all.  He was a proud pirate.  

Around the time that he received this costume we were driving to school when he announced, "as long as I have my brain, I'll never be bored, Mama."

“Yes, indeed,” I agreed.  He knew himself well at the age of 4.  In some of these pictures, he looks so very serious.  When they were first made, I imagined that I was seeing a glimpse into his grown-up face.  He was certainly determined to be a very serious pirate.

One with a sense of style, of course.  This first costume led to nearly a dozen other costumes and a boy who planned his Halloween celebration with the aid of his sewing grandmother and the precision of Eisenhower in advance of D-Day.  The costumes are long gone, though the boy with the imagination for a companion lives on, still comfortable for hours on his own.  

Halloween 2015

As I made ready for Halloween, I couldn’t help but remember the years of taking my own little boy in search for candy.  JT loved Halloween when he was little and from August onward, he plotted each year’s costumes.  He was Peter Pan in kindergarten.

For first grade, he was a politically incorrect Indian, a costume he loved so much that he wore it around for the next two years, in the house but also at the grocery store, Home Depot, and Target.

The next year he was a black cat.

In third grade, he was an alien.

In fourth grade, he got in touch with his Scottish ancestry.

In fifth grade, baseball had taken hold of his soul.  That year, JT went out dressed as the Pandoval, from the San Francisco Giants.

In the sixth grade, his last year as a trick-or-treater, the boy dressed up as a St. Louis Cardinal.  His friend D was a variation of a gory dude, one of his favorite costumes over the years.  

Those days have passed and now it’s my job to admire the costumes of the children who are out and about.  T and I both enjoyed the kids who showed up on the porch.   There were plenty of princesses, musclemen, and undead.  We saw a handful of vampires and devils and a few Star Wars characters.  My favorite was the little boy dressed as a pumpkin.  No ghosts and only a few witches turned up this year.  As usual, I hassled the older boys who came out with no costumes.  But there was candy for everyone who stepped on the porch at Sassafras House.

Happy Halloween!