English Topics - Halloween in the United States

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Alisha: Hi, everybody. My name is Alisha. And today, I'm joined in the studio by…

Michael: Michael. Hello.

Alisha: And today, we're going to be talking about the Halloween experience in the United States.

So, we're going to share some things about our experiences as children, and perhaps as

adults, with Halloween thus far.

So, the first topic for discussion for today is our favorite costume.

This is something that we've actually worn at any point in time for Halloween.

So, what's, for you, what has been your favorite costume thus far?

Michael: So, this was a tough one to think about because the fun costumes I've made,

I had more fun making than wearing them.

I made like a Megaman costume, a Megaman Jedi costume, that's pretty cool.

But, my favorite was the kissing booth.

So, this was one of those easy--you know, you don't make it, you go to the store and

you buy it and it just has like plastic PVC pipe in a square with a red curtain and like

text that says, “Kissing Booth.”

It's really easy.

My friend had it, it was last-minute, I didn't have a costume, he said, “Hey, you should

use this.”

And, it was a lot of fun.

But, it was before--you know, I was still young so it wasn't this like crazy, passionate,

drunken.

I was 15, so it's just a peck but it was the first time to get kisses and stuff and it

was my funniest memory of wearing a costume.

Alisha: Okay, okay.

Yeah, that's a good one.

Mine, I went a different route, I picked a character, actually.

I went one year as Tom Hanks from “Castaway.”

So, I had just a ripped up white T-shirt and I just bought a pair of old pants at the thrift

store and ripped those up a bit and I made my hair really, really big and kind of put

some like fake bruising on my face and then I made a paper mache Wilson, the volleyball

that he had with him on the island.

I made like the handprint and everything on it and carried that around.

“Castaway” was a famous Tom Hanks film from—oh, gosh, 10 or 15 years ago now.

I don't even know when that movie came out.

But, “Castaway,” Tom Hanks is stuck on an island by himself, his only companion is

a volleyball that has a bloody handprint on it and he names the ball and like—well,

you'll watch the movie.

So, yeah, I chose to go as Tom Hanks character from that movie that year.

Yeah, like you say, it was more fun to make the costume than it was to wear the costume,

almost.

How does one trick-or-treat, by the way?

Michael: Ah, trick-or-treating is basically going door-to-door to your neighbors, usually

with your parents, so that there's no dangerous kind of possibilities.

You knock on the door and you say, “Trick-or-treat!”

There are five or six cute little kids and costumes, and then, whoever's living there

gives you candy.

The most common thing is you just get a pillowcase.

But, they also have--they want to sell a plastic jack-o'-lantern.

Alisha: Yeah.

Michael: Which the jack-o'-lantern is like the pumpkin.

I think most people know that and it has the cut holes.

It's plastic.

You can buy those or just a pillowcase, you can get it full of candy and you go to as

many houses as you can try to get as much candy as you can.

And, if you're kind of mischievous or whatever.

You're greedy or you want to maximize your candy profit, you plan, beforehand, with your

friends and you go, “Okay, we're going to skip that neighborhood.

That's the poor neighborhood.

they don't give anything good.

Let's go to the rich neighborhood and we'll hit it.

And then, if we change costumes, you can go twice and get twice as much candy!”

Alisha: That's hardcore!

Michael: But, you know.

Or, you can just go, “Treat-or-treat!” your neighbors and yeah.

What was your trick-or-treating experience?

Alisha: I was a much kinder trick-or-treater.

Michael: You didn't con your neighbors?

Alisha: No!

Michael: That’s a typical United States kind of…

Alisha: Really?

Maybe.

I don't know.

We didn't really plan it out.

I think my parents were just like, “Let's go and let's make sure the kids have a good

time but let's come home.”

And then, when my brother and I got old enough, we didn't really want to do it anymore.

So, we would stay at home.

But one of the things that actually bothered me about that phase when I got too old to

trick-or-treat but I would stay home and they give candy to the kids.

There would inevitably be this handful of kids who were too old to be doing it.

They would come in like these…What?

Michael: Too old.

That's my…

Alisha: Too old.

Michael: My trick-or-treating experience.

Alisha: Were you that kid that would come to the door at 16 and you'd have a mask, like

a ski mask or something and then just jackets and would be like, “Trick-or-treat.”

And, there'd be this little row of like five and six-year-old kids in their costumes and,

“Weee.”

Then, there'd be this guy that walks up with a pillowcase in the end and I was like, “Come

on, dude.”

And, like, “What are you doing man?”

Was that you?

Michael: Yeah.

Maybe.

Alisha: Aww.

Why?

Michael: Well, we were in the weird in-between.

I had a babyface.

I went through puberty later so I still look like a kid.

And so, some of my friends were older.

They were those kids and that's when we planned it.

When we were old enough to go on our own, that's when we plan, “Okay, we should go

to the rich neighborhood and this and this.”

Before, yeah, you just go with your parents and they're tired, they don't want to walk

around, they can just buy you candy.

So, they're just like, “Okay, let's go around.”

You have fun, you go around just your neighborhood a couple times and you just love the idea

of it.

I mean, it's pretty easy to please a kid.

But, yeah, there's that awkward in-between.

Once you get like armpit hair and facial hair, your voice gets deep, cut it.

Don't do it anymore.

If you don't party too bad, stay home, do that kind of thing.

Yeah, you're asking earlier, what was my experience, were there any costumes that were kind of

hard to wear.

I remember one.

I asked my stepmom, I wanted to be the—what was that called?

Pumpkin on the head, he rides a horse.

Alisha: Ah!

The Headless Horseman?

Michael: The Headless Horseman, yes.

So, I wanted to be that.

I think there was a movie that came out.

I thought it’s really cool.

Alisha: “Sleepy Hollow.”

Michael: “Sleepy Hollow,” yeah.

It was cool so she made one for me.

And, I remember, just the head, it was an actual pumpkin on top of my head.

So, it would bobble around and stuff.

And so, tiny little kid bopping around, I kept half and go back to the house, duct tape

added to the costume.

Until, eventually, I just took it off and then you just get--I think it was a Jason

mask.

There's always the plan B costumes.

Alisha: Yeah, that’s true.

Michael: The lazy costumes that you're like, “Okay, let's just give up.”

You put a sheet on your body and cut two holes and you're a ghost.

There are the lazy, poor costumes that I think that was the plan B.

Alisha: Right, right.

Okay, so, when you did go trick-or-treating, was there anything that you got that you were

just so excited to receive.

Michael: Oh, yeah.

Alisha: Was there a favorite candy?

Michael: Yeah, I put the best, the okay and the worst.

So…

Alisha: Very organized.

Michael: So, the worst is Tootsie Rolls.

I don't know.

I hated Tootsie Rolls.

They don't flavor.

It's more of like an old people candy and I think it's cheap.

And so, you get those and you're like, “Ugh.”

That was like 30-40% of my bag was Tootsie Rolls I didn't want.

Alisha: Yeah, it's like a chewy chocolate.

It's really small.

Michael: It looks like a cat turd, you know.

It's really…

In general, just no good.

Alisha: You always paint such vivid images with your words, Michael.

Michael: Then, the medium that I liked, that most people didn't like but I loved.

But, you get so many of them, it's hard to really love them are the candy coins and that's

like essential Halloween candy, right?

Alisha: Actually, that was my worst.

Not because I don't like them because candy corn is perfectly good but when you get the

candy corn, inevitably it goes to the bottom of your bag and it's just like hanging out

down there and you're like, “I don't know if I should eat this.

I don't think I will.”

Candy corn is the thing that you keep in a dish in your grandma's house, another thing

that you give out.

And, that's also one of those safety things that they tell trick-or-treaters like, “Don't

eat any loose candy that you find in your bag because if it's not actually wrapped up

and someone who could have done something to it.

Yeah, so, whenever I got candy corn, we were always like, “Who did this?”

Michael: They stick together and melt.

Alisha: You get the kind of mutated corn candy.

Okay.

And then, what was the best for you?

Michael: The absolute best and this, I think, is more unique to the United States experience

is peanut butter.

I loved either Reese's Pieces or the absolute best was Butterfinger.

Not because Butterfinger is better than Reese's but because it's bigger so you get the king

size.

So, basically, you want the biggest bang for your buck.

You know, you want the most amount.

And so, a lot of times it was the bite-sized version.

These tiny little--it wasn't good enough.

So, when you had--that one house-- like you said, it had the lights on, it had tons of

decorations, you knew they meant business, you knew they were generous, they were like

a newlywed couple or something, or old people who are lonely, I don't know.

But, for some reason, they had tons of decorations and they invested a lot of money on Halloween.

So, you're like, “Yeah, go to that house!

Go to that house!”

And, you get a king-size Butterfingers bar, it’s awesome.

And then, there's the candy corn in that stuff so it’s just like pale in comparison.

I love that.

Alisha: Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, you're right.

I love peanut butter.

Reese's peanut butter cups, even today, I cannot buy them because I just eat them instantly,

all of them.

Well, that was like all of Costco, gone.

But, when I was a kid, though, now, I'm in the same boat, I love peanut butter and dark

chocolate, oh, mama.

It's so good.

But, when I was a kid, my favorite things to get were Skittles or Smarties and actually,

I found them.

I was going to eat these before we started filming this video but I found these over

in the snack corner over there.

Skittles.

Skittles are just a fruity-flavored small hard candy.

And then, Smarties, I feel like there are two camps on Smarties.

Smarties are kind of a chalky--I don't even know what they're made of.

Just like a chalky sugar.

When I was a kid, and even now, I don't know why.

Something about the act of eating it was very pleasant.

Michael: Hmm.

Alisha: It just had a weird consistency to it and I like that.

And so, I would always just slowly eat them one tab at a time.

Even now, I'm like.

“I wish I….”

I really want some now but, yeah.

That was my favorite, those two were my favorite when I was a kid.

I think that what we talked about is actually probably pretty typical of what Halloween

experiences like for kids.

Of course, as you become an adult, the experience will change to some degree.

You stop trick-or-treating, you stay inside and go to adult Halloween parties which is

fun as well.

Any thoughts?

Anything else?

Do you know what you're going to be for Halloween this year, by the way?

Michael: Oh, I was thinking--I just watched “The Princess Bride” which is a very nostalgic

movie and I was thinking about being the masked guy.

It's a simple costume, it's like all black.

I just like the movie.

What about you?

Alisha: Yeah, actually, I'm trying to think about it.

I'm thinking, usually—well, actually, the last couple years, I've kind of tried to go

a little too complex.

Last year I did a robot.

I tried to do like an Android robot and I painted all these lines on me but it just

came off and it just looked bad after a while.

So, I'm thinking about going kind of simple and classic monster.

We'll see, though.

I really don't know.

I've been thinking about it.

Anyway, that's all for the Halloween experience for this time around.

Please let us know if you have had any interesting experiences with Halloween or a similar holiday

in your country.

Let us know in the comments for sure.

Thanks very much for watching this lesson and we will see you again soon.

Bye.