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#KIROween

I've always loved Halloween. But, I didn't always love the costumes made by my mom. We didn't have much money when I was a kid, so they were almost always hand sewn. My mom, Peggy, recalls one year when I was too young to pick out my own costume. Inspiration struck her while she was at the fabric store. "I found this really inexpensive fabric. It looked like a sweaty animal and I thought, 'Oh, that's great for Halloween! You can be a scary something, animal of some sort.' I made it, and it took me a couple of weeks. But, when I dressed you for Halloween you just started crying. I felt so bad." Eventually I got over my horror, but as you can see in this picture, it took my brother a little longer to figure out what the heck I was supposed to be that year. Maybe that's what led to my eventual love of the book "Where the Wild Things Are." Post your favorite throwback costume pics on Instagram, include our hashtag #KIROween, and you could win tickets to The Mystery of Sleepy Hallow at Town Hall on October 28. The Ron and Don Show will pick our favorite listener submission Tuesday at noon. We all have those special get-ups that are more than just costumes. They're lifelong family memories. For Candy Harper, it was the year she decided she wanted to be Spiderman. "And my older brother turns to me and says, 'Ugh. Girls can't be Spiderman.' And I don't know if I was very defeated by that comment or not, but my mom had a very clear vision of - Girls can do anything boys can do. You are gonna be frickin' Spiderman and you're gonna like it! It was one of those moments. "I was the best Spiderman that Halloween. I was jumping around. And, you know, mom made the costume and it was a huge deal." A good costume really is all about the attitude. Little Sean Detorre managed to sell his Groucho Marx, even though none of his friends had any idea who he was supposed to be. "As my mom always says whenever I tell jokes around the house, 'Oh, look at you trying to be funny.' "Wearing the costume with the glasses and the mustache attached, the cigar, the suit jacket and the hat. I mean... They loved me!" Rachel Belle can certainly sell a character. While she was in college, she found inspiration in her Jewish roots and her favorite Saturday Night Live character, Linda Richman, the Coffee Talk lady. "I just always thought that this was my alter ego. I always loved this character. I'm a Jewish grandmother on the inside. "So, I was walking down the street with my friends and this guy across the street yells, 'Look, it's a dude dressed up like a chick!' And, I was like, 'No, it's a chick dressed up like a dude dressed up like a chick!' "Because, of course, Mike Myers was the person behind this costume. I felt pretty proud that I not only managed to become this character, but to change gender in the process." The young Ron Upshaw was more low key in his Halloween celebrations. His parents would pick out a plastic costume at the local Piggly Wiggly, whatever happened to be on sale. That is, until the town of Albequerque decided to stop celebrating Halloween altogether. "It got really embroiled, the city did, in that Satanic cult hysteria. Not only that, but that Halloween was their high holiday. By the time I really could have gotten into it, there was this mass hysteria that a Satanist was going to sacrifice you out on the mesa if you went out to get your Snickers bar." Poor Nick Jarin. He never really got into the holiday at all. He would rather hand out candy than go Trick or Treating. Although, there was one year he borrowed an old Jack-o-Lantern getup from the neighbor. "The only reason we dressed up is because we were going to an event on the Naval base that I lived on and kids had to wear costumes in order to get in and take part in all the fun. So, that was the first year I went bobbing for apples and kind of a modified indoor Trick or Treating. "It didn't really turn me around on Halloween. It was more like checking off the box of, 'Okay. I got to have that Halloween experience.' Next year I'm cool staying home and handing out candy again." But for me, Halloween is even more special now that I can continue the tradition of creating hand-sewn costumes for my kids, with a little help from Grandma Peggy. "Little guys are just so much fun to dress up and you don't have to worry about the perfection of sewing something. You don't have to worry about how long it'll last or if they're going to grow out of it. Who cares? It's just fun."
#KIROween