“Hair of the dog” for sugarbuzz hangovers
At one point last night, while teaching my son the subtle nuances that differentiate Milky Way from 3 Musketeers, I began reflecting upon the various Halloween schools of thought. I grew up with costumes made by loving hands at home and carried a pillowcase for candy, and was slightly horrified to realize that my kids had costumes from Target and carried plastic injection-molded candy baskets.
There are clear Halloween dichotomies, and without realizing it, you probably subscribe to one or the other on the basis of deeply ingrained principles:
Decorations: Storebought vs. Homemade
Costumes: Classic (cowboy, princess, doctor) vs. Merchandised (Power Rangers, Buzz Lightyear)
Trick-or-treating: Quintessential neighborhood experience vs. Maximum candy procurement
Pumpkin carving: Rudimentary buck-toothed smile vs. Martha Stewart-esque designs
Scary themes: Witches, black cats, cute ghosts vs. Bloody, maggot-eaten gorefests
Candy consumption: Eat all at once vs. Dole out over weeks (remember that scent of month-old Tootsie Rolls?)
If you think back, many of these preferences stem from your own trick-or-treating experience as a kid. Like toothpaste brand loyalty, these preferences develop very early on and aren’t likely to change.
Of course, as any working parent can tell you, sometimes form loses out to function. Parenting beliefs don’t always coincide with your parenting reality. So while I believe in healthy breakfasts, on the day after Halloween, only a full-size Snickers bar can counteract the sugar crash.
November 1st, 2005 at 10:34 am
i think of the three tiers of candy
1) anything with chocolate, but brands were important. snickers, milky way, reese’s, m&m’s, etc.
2) what started to look good AFTER the brand stuff was ingested. tootie roll pops, charms pops, generic hard candy, sweet tarts, etc.
3) and this stuff was the stuff that lived in the bottom of the bag and was consumed on those days you needed the sugar and preservative fix. anything with “mello” in the name. candy corn (channel lewis black here). and the worst ever, ever, ever — the three-inch long, pale orange marshmellow peanuts! UGH! GAG! PUH-TOOEY!
November 2nd, 2005 at 7:22 am
Jim– astonishingly accurate! Orange circus peanuts were the only stale, hardened leftovers, still lingering in December.