Back in 2007, I went all out for Halloween. I dressed up as the cartoon character Too Much Coffee Man. Unlike my wife, I'm not one to go for parties all that much. In 2007 she convinced me to attend the Halloween party that was being held elsewhere in our neighborhood. I was somewhat impressed with myself that I was able to decide who I would go as, how I would make my costume, where I would buy the supplies for said costume, buy everything, and put it all together in just a few hours time.
After finishing up my TMCM costume, I put it on and rode my longboard (yes, I was still skateboarding at 45 years of age) over to the original Stumptown Coffee location that isn't too far away from our house as we were all out of coffee beans and I needed to pick up a key component of what would be my wife's costume. I got a few smiles and some thumbs up, but other than most people seemed to have other things on their mind. In other words, here in the southeast part of Portland where I live, I did not really stand out as being all that unusual, even as TMCM while riding a skateboard.
The party was only 5 blocks away from our house and it was a nice evening so we walked. On the way to the party early in the evening I learned that younger children appeared to "not be fans" of Too Much Coffee Man. At least I assumed that I was the off-putting character. In hindsight I suppose that it could have been my wife who was dressed up as TMCM's mistress - a sultry bag of coffee beans.
Later that night, on our way back home, all of the young children were back inside, while the older kids were out doing whatever it is that older kids do on Halloween night in this day and age. It was then that I learned that TMCM was a definite hit with the older kids. There were kids rolling down their car windows screaming Awesome Too Much Coffee Man! at the top of their lungs. A couple of cars of kids pulled over and stopped so they could get out and check out the costume. Quite a few others who were out walking stopped us on the sidewalk to talk. I'm pretty sure that was the last time in my adult life that I had received any sort of genuine admiration from teenagers, lol.
As far as pdedse dressing up as Shrek goes, I could see where that might be intimidating. Even with my TMCM costume on, cup-head and all, I doubt that I would have been as tall as that version of Shrek. That would have been a sight to see. I have to be honest with you pdedse, I too found VLJ's story to be darkly humorous. I was picturing the mom using the encounter as a teaching moment. "Now this is why you want to practice safe social distancing dear."
:rofl:
