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Monster's Who's Who
A New Father Reflects on His First Halloween By Mark Stackpole
In the nine months since Corinne was born, my wife, Charlotte, and I have not missed a chance to celebrate every little step along the way. Recent firsts include clapping (while watching Clydesdale horses at the California State Fair), putting her arms straight up in the air ("Touchdown!") and actually acknowledging the existence of her father by giving him hugs and pats on the back. ("You're not Mom, but I guess you'll do – for now.") We are eagerly awaiting her first steps, though from what I understand from other parents, we will then fondly yearn for the days of more limited mobility.
While these personal milestones seem like holidays to us, I understand that we can't really expect everyone else to celebrate "Corinne Stackpole Crawls Up the Stairs Day." Fortunately, there are other, more major holidays that we celebrate with family and friends anyway, and Corinne is finally around to enjoy them. In this category, the parade of joyful firsts continues later this month with our daughter's first-ever Halloween.
As a matter of fact, Halloween is more than just a holiday in our house. It is a way of life, and Corinne will find that she is being indoctrinated early. From the foam bats that we hang on our front door to the scary contact lenses that I will wear as a part of my vampire costume, we are pretty committed to October 31 around here.
For the whole month of October, my cell phone is set to ring to the theme song from Halloween, one of my favorite scary movies. My passion for bad horror films and arcane monster trivia has made me something of a legend in my social circle. And by "legend," I mean "dork." And by "social circle," I mean "other dorks." Yes, for one night a year, the rest of the world pays attention to stuff I find really cool all year long. I'm hoping that if I start Corinne young enough, she will grow up to share some of these interests with her old man. I'm tired of being the only "legend" in the house.
My own introduction to the wonders of the weird and scary started with a book called Monsters Who's Who
