This is Halloween

So, Halloween in Italy is nothing to write home about. It makes me miss seeing the hoards of youngsters dressed as the most popular cartoon character of the season. It makes me miss the subpar chocolate confections of the United States (after you've been eating European chocolate anything by Hershey's tastes like chocolate flavored wax). It makes me miss candy corn and those little candy pumpkins. It makes me miss carving pumpkins and having some sublime idea but lack of dexterity con a knife, so I end up with a Jack-O-Latern that looks like it was fashioned by a three-year-old (not that I endorse giving three-year-olds knives...giving me a knife may also be a bad idea). It makes me miss eating all the candy before the trick-or-treaters actually arrive and having to buy more. It makes me miss my family. It makes me reminisce about all our off-the-hook Halloween parties when were we kids with the smoking root beer. It make me reminisce about the parade that we had at Wilson Elementary every year where all the parents could come and see the kids costumes.

It makes me remember the time that my dad told off some kids in his math class who bragged about the pumpkin smashing escapades one particular November 1, which sent my dad into a passionate lecture in which he compared smashing a pumpkin to shaving a puppy and giving it cigarette burns. He was too often a witness to our grief when rag-tag teenagers mutilated our beloved pumpkins as kids.

The last two years I've worked on Halloween, and actually it was a pretty good night for tips, so I miss that too. Although, even though there aren't any parties to be had, it is nice to have this Halloween off. I'm going out for Apertivo at this bar called Kitsch that promises to do something a little festive.

But, man, I miss home!