Halloween Weekend was fun.
My boys and their mom (and her fianceé and his daughter) came to trick-or-treat in my neighborhood. I live out in an upper-class subdivison of McMansions, so the pickings were really good in my neck of the woods. There was some guy ( a dentist, presumably) giving out–and I swear I’m not making this up–teddy bears. Yup. Swear to God.
Once again, I marched out the award-winning Blind Referee costume… probably for the last time (of course, I say that every year, but every year I still manage to extract more fun out of it).
Me as the blind referee
I had to meet the mishpacha overat a local restaurant across the street–and I could sense that the lady behind the counter could not actually tell if I were blind or not. I, of course, wasn’t going to help her determine one way or the other, and her doubt was further exacerbated by my kids–who, knowing the costume, played along “led” me to the table when I was done paying.
I’m always a little uneasy fooling people into thinking I have a genuine disability–in these days of rampant political correctness, you can’t be too careful–so I usually, time and circumstances permitting, will let the marks in on the joke of the costume. If someone came up to me and asked outright if I were really blind (and kudos for the ones that do; most people couldn’t bring themselves to do so), I would immediately answer no and demonstrate my ability to see. But those in on the joke have to hold back the laughter as I tell a mark “Yeah, my wife made this costume for me. She won’t tell me what it is, but she did say that everyone would get a big kick out of it.”
But the costume has won at least three Halloween costume contests (maybe more; I’ve actually lost count) and several awards. I get a chuckle out of almost everyone who sees it. No pun intended, of course.
I think I will actually have to either retire the costume, or turn it from an NFL referee to a college referee–starting with the 2008 season, the NFL has officiating crew has switched to a custom-made jersey that has become very difficult to reproduce–and absolutely impossible to acquire on the open market.
Current NFL referee attire
