We waited excitedly for Halloween all year long when I was a kid. In my mind, Halloween was a bigger deal than Christmas. All that free candy! We lived on the outskirts of a tiny town and would hit the dozen or so houses there and then drive to the next biggest town to claim our big haul.

My favorite costume was a store-bought Sylvester the Cat. I don’t know why I loved being him so much. I went as that cat for 3 years in a row. The ironic part? I had a lisp when I was kid and people used to call me Sylvester to make fun of me. That didn’t taint my love for him though.

One year we didn’t get to go trick or treating because it was raining too hard. To ease our disappointment, Mom let my sister and I circle the house - knocking on the back door and then the front - multiple times while she gave us candy. I was okay with that. A chocolate bar is a chocolate bar. And, I got to be Sylvester.

I’ve only dressed up twice since I’ve been an adult. Years ago I was Wednesday from the Addam’s Family and a few years ago I went as an alien. When I ordered the latex alien head it didn’t occur to me that it might be too hot here to wear it. It came with latex hands and feet too. I wore it with a giant flannel jacket and walked around with the kids. I sweated my ass off and to make it worthwhile, I trick or treated for candy too.