Dress up or get out

Halloween was never one of my favorite holidays. I loved being able to pretend to be something else, but I hated having to walk around and parade myself in front of large groups of strangers when I was an awkward little 10 year old. I just remember being tortured into wearing numerous silly costumes that included the ever-popular clown, Peter Pan, a red crayon (complete with pencil-shaped hat) and an ECU cheerleader.

I stopped wearing costumes around 10th grade because I felt ridiculous wearing overbearing outfits that looked somewhat like burlap sacks for my dad's fear of me looking "slutty." Oh, how I wish he could witness the current ECU Halloween festivities.

My disdain for Halloween does not stem from religious beliefs, and I think I may even be starting to like it. I will never quite understand why some religious denominations believe that Halloween is the "devil's holiday." What is so wrong with kids dressing up as Superman, Spiderman and M&Ms?

Once I stopped dressing up, I loved sitting out on our front porch looking at the adorable kids in their costumes begging for candy, or as christianitytoday.com says, "blackmailing neighbors for candy."

Growing up Lutheran, we celebrated All Saints Day (Nov. 1) by lighting a candle for every family member that passed in the name of Christ, but this never stopped us from behaving "devilishly" the night before and passing out into a sugar coma. Although my lack of understanding as to why a mere child's game of dress-up is evil to some is due to upbringing, it seems equally evil to deprive kids of the opportunity to partake in the memories built by favorite costumes and gross candy.

In college, our candy reward is the looks that we receive when we strut around downtown in our carefully planned outfits. For women, the cleavage and rear areas are strategically covered, but show just enough to will a few unfortunates to purchase us a beverage or two. For the men, I assume Halloween is an expensive evening out, because in order to meet a totally hot babe, it's necessary to treat them to a drink of sorts and to get into clubs that are somewhat biased toward females.

Most people say that Franklin Street in Chapel Hill is the place to be, but I think that being in Greenville with good friends is the best Halloween there could ever be. In addition, you get to see these friends drink/party enough to actually believe that they are who or what they are dressed up as.

Walk around on Ol' Hallows Eve and see if you can meet a Marilyn, a traffic cone, Forrest Gump or even the Spice Girls.

This writer can be contacted at opinion@theeastcarolinian.com.