A Very Quinn Halloween

 Halloween 1993

Halloween was always a highlight for the Quinn family. The majority of my memories are shared with my brothers Conor and Pat, simply because they're the closest in age. Months were spent picking out the best costume, which was usually a pirate, a ninja turtle, or a football player for them and a fairy or a princess for me. We live in what's arguably the best neighborhood in town for trick-or-treating and had some precious intel from our older brothers about what houses were a must-go and which were a major-skip (i.e.the ones that gave those popcorn balls, ew). It was a strategic event for us; how could we get not only the most candy, but also the best candy, in the shortest amount of time? A challenge we happily accepted.

Our Halloween day would go a little something like this:

• 8am-3pm-Sit in school all day anticipating the evening
• 3pm-3:05pm-Upon arriving back home, IMMEDIATELY change into costume 
• 3:05pm-5:30pm-Sitting, waiting, watching the clock tick
• 5:30pm-6:00pm-Dinner
• 6:00pm-6:30-Organize pumpkin candy buckets, ghost flashlights and finalize costumes
• 6:30pm-It's go time
• 8:30pm-Arrive back home, exhausted, face-makeup smudged, but with a gold mine of sweets
• 8:30-9:30pm-Trade candy-like it's the NFL draft
• 9:30pm-Collapse into bed

I can't stress how important the trade portion of the evening was to us. After carefully arranging all of our loot in a strategic fashion on the living room floor, the trading process began. Obviously, there was a hierarchy of candy. Reese's peanut butter cups trumped all. They were the most powerful bartering tool. Supply and demand, catch my drift? "I'll give you four packs of Nerds for one Reese's peanut butter cup." "I'll give you two Milkyway's for a Snickers." "I'll give you ALL of my Almond Joys for your big Hershey's bar." (Almond Joys were always a tough sell). This went on for what seemed like forever until we were all happy with what we got. Best part? My parents dumped it all into one bag the next day and we all happily shared anyway. But it was a blast and I have some of my best memories from our trick-or-treating days.

I can't wait for the next Halloween, where I will undoubtedly be taking my nephew on his first trick-or-treating experience. As for this Halloween, I thought I'd share some comedy from Crest:

And with that, I wish everyone a happy, safe and super fun Halloween!

Do you have any Halloween traditions? What was the best candy in your house? Comment or share!

As always, "Other things may change us, but we start and end with family."-AB