Pac-man, 1983

All of these costumes may be a year off. Pac-man was popular in 1982, but I can't imagine that my had her finger on the pulse of pop culture. She's a parent and a teacher (so am I) so she'd be a year behind the pop curve (am I?) Add this to the holes in the costume/photo archives and I'm thinking that the years represented on the photos could be a year off.

This was a really cool costume, even though I'm didn't grow up to be a gamer. I lack the patience and basically suck at all video games. The only game I "beat" as a kid was nintendo Golf.

And Contra (with 30 extra lives.)

What I remember most about this costume, Halloween is that I look like a wheel of cheese. We went to our next door neighbor's house for our first stop. THE first stop. They lived on a hill, the front yard sloping steeply down to the street. I rang the doorbell, took a step back when they surprisingly threw opened the door, and I fell.

Then I rolled.

And rolled.

And rolled and rolled and rolled down to the curb.

There's a shot in "The Big Lebowski" where the camera angle is the ball's POV. Think that, but replace the bowling lane with grass, and the ceiling with a black sky and orange street light and you get the idea.