Mason lost interest in trick-or-treating this year. He went through all the motions Halloween night, knocking on doors and collecting candy, but told me afterwards that next year, if it’s all the same to me, he would rather stay home and just hand out candy to kids.

I remember the last year I went trick-or-treating. I was slightly older than Mason — fifteen years old and in tenth grade. My friend Louis and I both owned motorcycles and lived within a mile of one another so we could often be seen riding around town together. by then I was working at the ballfield concession stands and Louis worked at a local greenhouse. Both of us had to take off work for the night. Two signs you are too old to be trick-or-treating: you can legally drive, and you have to ask your boss for the night off.

For Halloween that year Louis and I decided to dress up as the Blues Brothers. We did not coordinate our outfits. I wore a blue denim overcoat, black jeans, white tennis shoes, and my father’s fedora which he had purchased shortly after Raiders of the Lost Ark hit theaters (and had sat in his closet ever since). Louis arrived wearing a gray trenchcoat with a matching hat and his face painted white like a skeleton’s. Neither one of us looked like the Blues Brothers. I looked like a fat version of Panama Jack. Louis looked like a thinner and deader version of me.

After meeting up, the two of us rode our motorcycles (in costume) to a nearby neighborhood. (Another sign that you are too old to be trick-or-treating: you don’t want anyone you know to see you.) We parked our motorcycles at the end of a dead end street, put our hats on, and walked up to the first house.

I can’t remember which one of us actually said it, but by the time we had reached the third house the situation had become so embarrassing that we aborted the mission. We made our way back to our motorcycles, rode them to Mazzio’s Pizza, and ordered dinner. After eating pizza in those terrible costumes I stopped by Walmart and bought myself a mixed bag of candy.

Next year, Mason and I are going to tackle decorating the house. We’ll make some real plans and do some real decoarting. Maybe we’ll even dress up as the Blues Brothers.