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I'm One of my earliest childhood memories is going trick-or-treating around the neighborhood that I grew up in.

I didn't have much of a costume because I only decided last minute that I wanted to join my big brother.

I've been terrified at the idea

of all these miniature monsters walking around outside, but that fear was gradually and eventually

outweighed by the promise of a huge haul of Halloween candy. My mom used some leftover monster

makeup to paint my face like a skeleton, and then I wore a torn up trash bag like I was some

kind of garbage ghoul. And I must have looked pretty silly compared to some of the other kids

and their Batman and Superman costumes, but that didn't really bother me. All I was interested in

was getting my fair share of candy, and boy, was there lots of that. My brother was 13 at the time, so he agreed to

escort nine-year-old me around the neighborhood with him and his friends from middle school.

And I couldn't believe that I'd been so frightened by the whole thing because actually being

out there, knocking on doors and showing off our costumes, it was some of the most fun I'd ever

had in my entire young life.

People were giving us a ton of candy, and not just candy either. They were giving us all kinds of

things. One house we knocked at, I think it was the town dentist, gave us all toothbrushes, and then

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