INSIDE AURORA: Scary Stuff

October 30, 2013 · 0 Comments

By Scott Johnston

If your kids have left it to the last minute, they may still be looking for inspiration as to what sort of costume to wear this Halloween.
There’re the traditional favourites like princesses, hobos, and superheroes, but the best costumes, and the ones most suitable for Halloween, are the scary ones, such as witches, zombies, and vampires.
And please, not the wussy Hollywood tween-love vampires with the perfect hair, and poster boy looks, but the real Lon Chaney and Christopher Lee inspired ones.
But these are all still a little predictable.
The good news is that if your kids want to put a scare into the houses they visit, there are a whole array of Aurora-themed costumes that could make your neighbours’ hearts beat a little faster.
How about dressing up your child as a cell tower? A bit of cardboard tubing, some paper, and voila. Guaranteed to put a fright into most Aurora residents. But please note this one may be too effective in some areas of west Aurora, where your child may run the risk of having the resident dog unleashed on them.
A more subtle approach would be to put a twist on the chainsaw wielding psychopath costume. In this case, make it an axe wielding forester here to cut down some beloved local trees. Again, proximity to real events helps ramp up the fright factor, so this one would be best in south Aurora.
Next year, try this in the neighbourhoods near the soon-to-disappear forests of the 2C lands northwest of Leslie and Wellington.
A safety reminder; if you go this route, please use a prop axe or chainsaw, and not a real one.
Continuing the theme of tree loss, you could attempt an emerald ash borer costume. This might be a bit more complicated, and it is pretty much a certainty that it would have to be homemade, as I don’t think the costume designers of the world have caught onto this theme for mass production.
The potential downside of this idea for your child is that depending on your costume creating skills, or lack thereof, they may spend valuable trick-or-treating time trying to explain that they’re an ash borer, and not an aardvark, or crayfish, or whatever else they may end up looking like.
If you think your neighbours have deep-seated phobias about finances, your youngster could dress up in a suit and tie with a clipboard reading “Tax Department” on it. In this case though, the “tax collector” need only accept chocolate bars, potato chips, or other edible goodies.
They may even get a larger amount from the homeowner, in thanks that the kids aren’t after their cash.
A tried and true costume sure to put a shudder into most Aurorans is the traffic pylon. Yes, it’s always pot hole and road construction season here in town, and no one likes to be reminded of that. As an added bonus, by its nature this costume’s highly visible, even on darkened streets, so is safer than most.
On a related note, if you have a traffic calming-based costume from a previous year, you could re-use that, but although always relevant in Aurora, that theme is a bit less topical these days.
Perhaps the most chilling costume one could try is that of a local politician on the campaign trail. A “Vote for Me” button, and some ‘campaign fliers’, accompanied by a ready handshake, and big toothy smile, and they’ll look just like the people that will be knocking on our doors next year.
After all, the start of the municipal election season is only a few months away.
Now that’s scary.