I Remember Halloween

Photo credit given to "Red Ted Art"

Photo credit given to “Red Ted Art”

 

I grew up in a tightly knit townhouse community called Olde Colonial Greene nestled in the heart of Doylestown Township, Pennsylvania.  Given the intensely close proximity of the houses in our neighborhood, it was a trick-or-treater’s goldmine.  You could easily fill three or four pillowcases with candies of all varieties by the time you were done.  As such, a lot of parents in Doylestown caught on to the ease of the Colonial Greene Halloween: for mom or dad there’s not a lot of walking between houses, for the kids there’s plenty of candy doled out to dispel the possibility of any disappointment at the end of the night.  By proxy, Olde Colonial Greene saw its fair share of “bussed in” trick-or-treaters from the outside neighborhoods across town and while we typically thumbed our noses at these outlanders, I can remember one Halloween where my folks made an exception to the rule that’s changed my perception on them to this day, and for the better.

 

My dad’s best friend had a lot of trouble with his kids, but his daughter, Elaine, was the real hellion.  She got wrapped up in drugs, and ultimately left her husband, Randy, in charge of maintaining their household and raising their three kids while she was in and out of rehab or jail.  I can remember one Halloween my mom telling me that Randy was going to be bringing Brian, Sarah, and Jackie (Randy and Elaine’s three kids) over because Elaine usually oversaw Halloween.  This year, Elaine wouldn’t be able to take the kids out trick or treating and Randy had no idea where to take the kids.  Being a piece of shit only-child, I threw a fucking fit.  My Batman costume was the bee’s knees and I fully intended it to be the center of my parents’ attention.  It’s funny because even though I’ve sort of relinquished giving a shit about Halloween as I’ve gotten older, back then, my costume was really important to me.  I didn’t want these shitty kids that I barely knew ruining my spotlight or taking the attention off of me because of something I didn’t understand  No sir. Over my dead body.

 

To make a long story short, the youngest kid, Brian, really latched onto me. Subsequently we forged some sort of a bond that Halloween night even though Brian was about 3 years my junior, and, from what I remember, was decked out in a pretty shitty ghost costume.  I remember my dad staying behind to talk to Randy to talk about what was going on with his wife.  I distinctly recall Randy being incredibly grateful to my parents for letting the kids come over and pal around with me on Halloween.  For Randy, I guess it really meant the world to him that he could fill the void his wife had created for their children.

 

I later found out that those kids still talk about how great it was coming over to trick-or-treat with me in Colonial Greene and that they never got so much candy on any Halloween before.  For as much animosity that sometimes exists at the Signorino household, and for as wary and cold as we can be to strangers, that was a rare moment of warmth and kindness shared by my parents to some guy down on his luck with three kids that just wanted to pretend they were someone else one night of their young lives.  Maybe for those kids, dressing in spooky costumes and horrifying get ups was a way to probably to forget that their mom wasn’t around or that their lives had been turned upside down by the very real horror of drug addiction.  I sometimes think about how great of a dad Randy was to those kids and whenever my parents pull their isolationist bullshit, I’m quick to remind them of a time where they gave a down-and-out family a chance to have some semblance of normalcy.

Scott Signorino

About Scott Signorino

Scott Signorino is a thirty-something professional living in Center City Philadelphia. An avid runner and video gamer, Scott will be happy to chew the fat with you over the latest Nike shoe or the best character class to use in Diablo 3. Elsewhere on the web, Scott occasionally reviews live music for Jump Magazine (www.jumpphilly.com) and has been published in Doom Zine – an independent publication based out of Boston, Massachusetts.

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