Asking For A Friend

When was it, precisely, that Halloween stopped being for kids and started being for adults? It could be that this is only my perspective, since I am currently considered an adult and I am no longer a kid. When Halloween rolls around, my responsibilities skew more to the preparations and infrastructure than the actual event. The anticipation is still there, but making sure there are enough fun size Snickers on hand to serve the masses is the focus.
That and the costume.
After fifty-seven years of All Hallow's Eve, I still find myself fretting once the calendar page turns to October: What will I be? Sexy Oncologist? Sexy Food Service Worker? Sexy Halloween Costume Designer? That's where all this grown up mishegas begins and ends. Sexy. This is the kind of thing that gets everyone all adither as that spooky day approaches. How can we turn our scariest holiday into our most prurient?
This was not my focus when I was in college, but it was apparent in my hometown that grownups had taken over the night. The legendary Boulder Mall Crawl was the background for that autumn night in the eighties. It was a drunken brawl that was finally shut down by local authorities after crowds swelled to numbers beyond rivaled the attendance of a college football game, if not a little more intoxicated. In those years, I stayed away from the crowds, preferring instead to host my own parties, offering a way station for those who needed a port in the storm. It was into this fray that all manner of sexy this and that poured. It was the inevitable end of the curve suggested by the notion that Halloween costumes were some reflection of one's subconscious. I tended toward creepy and macabre, but was always keenly aware of the heavily made-up group that surrounded me, whose outfits never occluded their opportunity to consume alcohol.
And once I got out of that habit, my Halloweens slowed down considerably. Being sober on October 31 meant that I could see the tawdriness for what it was: scary. Adults living out a night of fantasy aided by a few additional cocktails instead of the aforementioned fun sized Snickers. Putting the trick back into Trick or Treat. You know, for "kids."