Ramble On: Help a brother out with his Halloween costume

In the past I have said that the fall season is one of my favorite times of the year. You get football, the new television programs and cooler weather with beautiful scenery.

What I should have said is, aside from one thing, I love the fall season. That one thing happens to be Halloween.

I don’t know what happened to me in the last five years, but lately Halloween has not been so important to me. About a decade ago, Halloween was a time when I shined bright. I would take part in the annual h attraction at the annual Literary Festival, I threw one of the biggest Halloween parties in Anderson with all the friends I could think of, and I used to dress up in some of the best costumes I have ever thought up.

There was a time I actually looked forward to Halloween and, sadly, it seems that time has passed.

So, imagine my chagrin when I learned that one of my best friends decided he was going to throw a Halloween party this year and that I was expected not only to show up, but to dress up as well. See, I don’t mind showing up for Halloween parties, but I just don’t have the desire to dress up anymore.

That has been evident by some of my last few costumes:

n One year, I bought a pair of overalls that I thought would be cool. When Halloween rolled around, I put on my overalls, put a red bandana around my neck and put a stuffed monkey in my pocket. I was the Grateful Dead song “Monkey and the Engineer.”

n The year after that, I had those same overalls. I didn’t wan to repeat my costume so I put on a straw hat and went as a farmer.

n The year after that, a friend of mine gave me a biker jacket. When Halloween snuck up on me, I put on the biker jacket, put a on red bandana (around my head this time) and went as a biker.

n And one other year I just went to the local thrift store and found a “Celebration Singers” T-shirt from 1989 on the rack. It had the name “Kelly” written on the seam. I went as Kelly the Celebration Singer.

Obviously, I was not in the Halloween spirit.

But this year I am honestly going to try to do something fun. I am trying to take a page from my wife who has won Halloween costume contests and always gets into the spirit of the holiday. I am trying to get back to the years when I had someone make me a cloak so I could go as Aragon from “Lord of the Rings,” or when I was willing to lay on a table with spaghetti oozing out of my stomach for a haunted-house effect.

The thing is, I need a bit of help. I need you to give me some good ideas of costumes for this Halloween. If it is good enough, I will be happy to give you credit. And the best ideas for costumes will go into our Halloween edition of Upstate Be coming out on Oct. 29.

So, send your complete ideas along with what materials are needed for the costume to me at grovejb@independentmail.com. We will publish the best and put all the ideas (that are appropriate) online. Get them to me by the end of the day Monday and help a brother out.

I don’t want to pull those overalls out again.