Hobos & Halloween


When I was home a few weekends ago, I ended up attending a Halloween party at the last minute. Our very close family friends, “the S Family” are mega Halloween enthusiasts and they host a Halloween party every year. My parents had RSVPed that they would be attending, but I had planned to stay at home to play with Jiji and do homework.

A little family history. My family has been friends with the S Family for 20 years or so? I have been close friends with their eldest son, “B” since we were 3 years old, so yes, 20 years! Wowza! They also have a younger daughter, “R”, that I am very close to. In fact, we are like family at this point. They are my siblings and I am their “other sister.”

Since it was just going to be adults, that was one of the main reasons that I decided not to attend the Halloween party. I began to cook my dinner, when the phone rang. It was my dad. Turns out at “B”, who currently resides and works in Washington DC was at the party! It had been ages since we last spoke and even longer since I last saw him, so I essentially dropped everything and made my way over to the party. Not having planned a Halloween costume, I ended up wearing my pajamas, which are surgical scrubs. I was my hopeful future for Halloween --- a surgeon!

The annual S Family Halloween party is themed. In the past we have had: Elvis, famous sleuths, retirement home, hippies…the list goes on. This year, the theme was “HOBOS.” My parents, for the life of me I don’t understand why, dressed up in ghillie suits. Well, my dad wore a ghillie suit and my mom wore some sort of nature/leaf/camo get up. They bought these for the cabin and had been dying to try them out. I guess the recession has hit Mother Nature too?
The party was lovely. I really enjoyed seeing the costumes. My favorite costume was the Charlie Chaplin! This woman came dressed as Chaplin’s most iconic character: The Tramp. I love love love it! Her husband’s costume was also fantastic. He came as the famous hobo-clown Emmett Kelly! Well done to the both of them!
Charlie Chaplin as "The Tramps"
Emmett Kelly

As always, the décor was fantastic, the food was spooky, and the magic tricks were brilliant! (Mr. S is a wonderful magician. So is B and his sister). This year though, I was intrigued to see fortunetellers! I don’t know if they have been doing this for while now or not, I haven’t been to one of these parties in about 5 years or so, but I thought it was great. I got my fortune told, which was sort of cool, but it didn’t rock my world. I thought the fortune tellers observations were sort of vague and generic, but she was really into her tarot cards and in the name of Halloween, I went with it.
Of course, one of the highlight moments was being able to see B and finally catching up with him! He has so bad at communicating and has not been returning my messages, so first I chastised him --- then I hugged him. I have missed my big brother. 

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