Halloween Memories

Do you celebrate Halloween?  Do you carve Jack o lanterns, decorate your house, or even make Halloween themed foods?

To tell ya the truth, I've never been a huge fan of Halloween. I don't like scary things, ugly things or being  in the dark...lol.

I thought for this Friday Five I would share a few fun (or funny) memories I have about Halloween.



1. I'm going Waaaay back to kindergarten for this one. It wasn't a fun memory but looking back now it's kind of funny.  On Halloween our teacher made us color a picture of a Witch face.  In my mind when I see a witch, I think of the witch from Wizard of OZ, so for this reason I colored the witch face green (on purpose). I may have mixed two colors together to get green. ( This was 30 years ago so I don't remember why I did this. Perhaps we only had the three primary colors of crayons, I don't know..lol).  Anyway, the next day when I got my paper back I got an unsatisfactory mark and a note that said "I know you can do better than this".  I was very good at coloring so this note clearly upset me.  I thought I was being clever by coloring the face green!

2.  Our grandmother, we called her our Mammy (bless her heart) LOVED Halloween. She would dress up in costume (usually something ugly or scary) and come trick or treating at all the grandkid's houses. One year we had no idea who she was. Even my parent's didn't know it was her. Finally my sister pointed to her shoes and said "it's Mammy", I know because I recognize her white Reeboks.


3. My very first "real" race (meaning a timed non Disney race) was the Monster Mile. The race took place on the boardwalk. I remember being passed by all these little kids. I felt bad because I even had to stop and walk a bit half way through it..haha. I finish in 10 minutes flat. Afterwards we had to prepare for what was one of the largest Hurricanes on the East Coast.

4. One year I was at my parent's house for Halloween (cus we don't get trick or treaters at my house), A trick or treater with a Golden Retriever came to the door. The retriever was dressed as Sponge Bob Square pants. Her name was Felicity.  Ten years later (which was this past Spring) I met a golden retriever at the park I run in and the owner told me her name was Felicity and she was about 11. I remembered the name Felicity and asked her if Felicity ever dressed up as Sponge Bob for Halloween and by golly she had. It was the same dog.  It was nice to see Felicity was doing well.


5. The last Halloween-ish memory was when I ran the Wicked 10K (in VA Beach) for the first time. I dressed as a ghost and I PR-ed coming in at 58 something! I believe that was the last 10k I ever ran and that was over 3 years ago. I'm thinking I need to start finding some 10Ks!

Got any memories of your own to share? -M
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28 comments:

  1. My best Halloween costume was a Blue Crispy M&M. It was right when they came out the with commercial of the M7Ms that walked and talked, and blue was the crispy one, and I loved both blue and crispy, so there you go. My friends and I went as a pack!

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  2. So you were a costumed runner from way back? My best costume was when I dressed up as a TV. My dad made the "set" out of a box, complete with Saran wrap screen. We lived in the country and a car honked at me, scared me, and I took off running. Never very coordinated, I tripped and fell down, right through the screen...

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  3. I do a costume every year....probably my best one is a Jeanie costume (from I Dream of Jeanie), and the husband wears his Air Force dressed blues (Major Nelson...he even has the "Nelson" name badge) with it. Most people know who we're emulating LOL

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  4. Oh, wow, how could you get a bad grade for coloring? I do love Halloween - I love the community spirit of the kids going around the neighborhood - even the teenagers as long as they say "trick or treat" and "thank you." How amazing that you saw the same dog again!

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  5. That is crazy you found Felicity again! I do think you need to find a 10k and refresh that PR. Maybe dig up the ghost costume too. What a fun mammy!

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  6. So awesome that you met Felicity again!

    Halloween is not my thing. Probably because when I was very little, maybe 5 or 6, my parents went out and left my sister in charge. So she would've been 12 or 13, I guess. Maybe I was actually a bit older; maybe 7? Which would have made her 14.

    Anyhoo, she left and left my brother in charge. He's just barely 2 years older than me.

    HE left & left me all alone! On Halloween!

    We stopped giving out candy when we got to 4 animals and moved here, which is a raised ranch (as opposed to our ranch house in TX), which means the front door is at the bottom of a half staircase. It just got too hard.

    Now we just turn off all the lights. Luckily we live in a neighborhood where they don't egg or paper you!

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  7. What fun memories! I always went in my ballet costume from the year before. So creative. :-)

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  8. That's a rude kindergarten teacher ! Not cool!

    Aww! Your grandma story is so cute!

    I love your ghost costume and Lacey's Cinderella! Hershey 10k is almost here!

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  9. Don't hate me... I'm no Halloween fan. I guess my good Halloween memories are all from elementary school! I can't believe your Kindergarten teacher did that AND amazing that it stayed with you. It goes to show!

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  10. The first costume I chose for myself was the Wicked Witch of the West, and I had green face paint. I like that you colored the witch's face green. What a mean teacher! It's kindergarten!

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  11. How crazy about Felicity! So funny you ran into her again! Aww your little kindergarten story made me sad...I think mixing two colors to get green is very clever! :) I'm with you - I'm not a huge fan of Halloween because of the scary stuff.

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  12. I was never really that into Halloween either until I had kids. Now it's fun and all but it is getting a little out of control and I can't keep up with the costumes, decorations, events, etc. I get a little overwhelmed!

    And I agree with the others, that kindergarten teacher was rude!!

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  13. Cannot believe a Kindergarten teacher would ding a child for their choice of color!

    We do carve pumpkins and have a huge light-up spiderweb that we hang on our front porch, but that's about it. I admit I'm a bit of a Halloween scrooge - just not a fan of the scary stuff!

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  14. Halloween is my favorite holiday - I don't even do anything particularly interesting, but I love all things fall and halloween!
    I'm very disappointed in your teacher for giving you unsatisfactory in COLORING. That really bothers me!

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  15. I love that you got to see Felicity again! That's a cute idea to dress the dog up as Spongebob :) I'm not huge into Halloween but Mike loves it!

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  16. So glad you are taking over the Friday Five!! fun and happy Halloween

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  17. I love that you found Felicity again! And what was UP with your kindergarten teacher?? That was wrong. My halloween memories are mostly of my kids - when we first moved to Texas, our youngest wanted to be a cowboy, and every house we landed at, instead of saying Trick or Treat, "I'm a cowboy" came out of her mouth. Too cute.

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  18. I've never been a fan of Halloween, either, but my youngest daughter loves it so we do celebrate. We are going to carve our pumpkins this weekend, and have her costume all ready for Monday!

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  19. I'm with ya on the not a big fan of Halloween. I do remember in grade school we paraded through our little town in costume with the high school marching band leading it. In later, I remember being in the marching band for that parade.

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  20. I love the idea of your grandmother dressing up to come trick or treat you guys! I definitely want to be that kind of grandmother.

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  21. Or maybe you should start running in a ghost costume?? Haha! That golden story is unreal! What are the odds??? Your Mammy sends like she was a lot of fun! That is weird your teacher didn't like the green! I think of the Wizard of Oz face too!

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  22. What great memories! I picture all witches with green faces! Mean teacher. I don't remember much about Halloween as a kid. But, when my youngest was little -- he'd hide behind the hub's recliner (while crying) every time the doorbell rang with trick or treaters. We love to remind him of this! LOL. That ghost costume it so cute! Thanks for the linkup.

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  23. It was the same dog?!?! That's so cool!!

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  24. What is it with grandmas and white sneakers? :)

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  25. I'm kind of lukewarm on Halloween as well. Pros: candy and being able to dress up like a princess if you want to. Cons: all things gross or scary. When I was little, my grandmother used to make our costumes. The best of them got passed down through the grandchildren (I'm the oldest, so I always got first dibs). The best was probably a T-Rex costume. I love that you have multiple running-related Halloween memories!

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  26. i love halloween! I am still debating what to wear to work on Monday!

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  27. I remember in Kindergarten, a kid had accidentally scratched my eye just before halloween. So I was a belly dancer with an eye patch! I did NOT want to change my costume to be a pirate!

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  28. I am also not a big Halloween fan... I can't believe your teacher didn't appreciate the green witch! I thought that's so creative.

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