My parents were never very big Halloween people, nor were their friends. Although they would take us trick-or-treating, they would never dress up for the occasion. I didn’t really understand that adults did such a thing until I was a teenager. 

When I was that age, I loved to dress up in spooky costumes. I would dress up as villains from slasher films, such as Jason, Freddy Krueger, or Leatherface from the Texas chainsaw massacre. I’m sure I terrorize more than my share of little kids but it wasn’t too long until I realized that those scary costumes weren’t that original.

The first time I got into a couple of costumes was when I was about 17. I was in my first relationship back then and was hopelessly in love. I guess all kids are in love when they have their first relationship. Anyway, my girlfriend was kind of a cheese ball. She loved anything cutesy and romantic. 

At Halloween, of course, she insisted on us getting the couple’s costumes. My friends made fun of me, but I persevered anyway.  I knew that couple of costumes were important to her, and I didn’t want to disappoint her. We went as Tweedledee and Tweedledum that year. Although a few of my friends had to make fun of us, it was clear that they thought the idea was pretty funny. 

After that, a couple of costumes were a hit with my crew. Every year, we would go in costumes that complemented each other. Sometimes, we would be in pairs, but more often we would go as whole groups. One of the best couple costume events was when everyone dressed up as their favourite hero or villain duo. 

We had Batman and Robin, Superman and Wonder Woman, and a foursome dressed as the Fantastic Four. We also had a special appearance by Baron Greenback from Danger Mouse, surrounded by several of his most villainous henchmen. All in all, the Party was quite a time, and we all had a lot of fun.

Sometimes, we would make our own couple costumes. It was a lot of fun to get involved in the craft aspect of it, even if it was quite a bit of work as well. Other times, they would simply be too complicated. We would buy them or rent them from Halloween stores. 

Sometimes, the best approach was to combine both. With all of the previous costumes I had worn, I had more than enough supplies to make a new, seemingly fresh costume from spare pieces of previous ones.