As a kid I loved fall break, it meant the holidays were just around the corner.  I grew up in Pawhuska, here in Oklahoma, for those of you that don’t know.  It was, and still is, a pretty small town. Fall was homecoming and the homecoming parade.  It was middle school dances at Cedar Ridge, which is a retirement community, how’s that for irony.  It was trying to figure out what costume to wear for trick or treating, because then, every one trick- or-treated and every one gave out candy. 

   It really was like something you’d see on TV.  We would run through the streets without a care, filling up our pillow cases with candy, and comparing costumes.  My favorite costume was really the most uncomfortable too. 

   My friend Jeniffer and I decided to dress up as army men. My mom had been in the Air Force, so we borrowed her fatigues and boots.  Her boots were already too small for me, but I squeezed my giant feet into the narrow openings because, that is after all, what matched.

   Somewhere during our course of preparation, and I’m not taking credit or blame for this ingenious idea, but one of us actually had the idea to make our lips glow-in-the-dark.

   Glow-in-the-dark lips sounded great with camouflage, problem was; we had no glow-in-the-dark lipstick.  Here comes the uncomfortable part, one of us thought it would be fun to use glow-in-the-dark fingernail polish! Yes, I said fingernail polish (this is what happens when you leave your kids unsupervised for too long.)  Anyway, we painted our lips up as ‘glowy’ as they would get, and ignored the stiff, yet burning feeling it provided.

   Being kids we really didn’t think too far ahead.  We enjoyed the evening begging for candy and tromping around in shoes that were too small, and didn’t care about the discomfort of either.

   It wasn’t until all the fun is over and the candy had been checked for poison and razorblade, that we realized something just wasn’t right.  The ‘too small shoes’ dilemma was easy to fix, and a few blisters was well worth the loot we had obtained.

   The fingernail polish on the lips however, was not so easily fixed.  We first tried to scratch it off, and that seemed to work a little.  The scratching, however, wasn’t working well enough.  Now, by this time, Jeniffer’s mom and sister were laughing hysterically at the two idiots with fingernail polish on their lips.  I don’t really think either one of us cared; we just wanted that nasty stuff OFF!

  We knew what we had to do.  It wasn’t going to be pretty, or painless, but it was required to fix the damage we had caused.  Someone; and I have blocked that painful memory out, pulled out the pink bottle of Cutex fingernail polish remover.  Did we do it????  Uh, yeah, we did.  It burned, it stung, it itched, and try as I might to not find out, it tasted HORRIBLE.

   We finally removed all the finger nail polish from our mouths, and became the butt of many jokes for just as many family gatherings. 

   Now, as for my kids, they don’t really trick-or-treat. It’s not like it was when I grew up.  You can’t really wander from door to door and KNOW for sure that everything is going to be okay.  We always go to a church function, and that is usually a ‘costume free’ environment.  It does kind of make me sad that they won’t make those kinds of memories with their friends, but I’m also happy that they will have plenty of other memories that don’t involve using chemicals on their face.

 Time saving tip of the day:   Depending on the amount of space and people in your family…. have dirty clothes baskets designated for certain colors so that it is already pre-sorted for you.  Also label the baskets as to how the contents should be washed (hot, cold, gentle, etc…) This makes it easier for you, if you wash, and allows older children to help wash, with little room for error.