Staff Writer Tyler Fleming celebrated Halloween on Franklin Street for the first time and wrote about it for The Daily Tar Heel's Bucket List for UNC students. He documented his experiences among the drunk, costumed and cold.
It was Oct. 31 in Chapel Hill and I had to make one last minute decision. Halloween was only a few hours away and I had just emerged from the last of my four midterms that week and then it hit me that I did not have a costume.
My first Halloween as a college student and here I was missing the cornerstone of all Halloween traditions. My roommate made a cool Tin Man costume, my other friends had all their stuff together and I kept getting the same question — “What are you going as, Tyler?”
Let me preface with the simple fact that I am not a creative person. As you continue reading this blog post you will only be further convinced of this simple truth.
So, after class, I got back to my dorm, where my friend John and I decided to be the Blues Brothers. Now I know the Blues Brothers are a completely serious costume idea, but personally, I feel it is the simple fallback for any one who owns a suit.
Sadly, my suit is more of a charcoal than a black. So I improvised with a cardigan. I looked kind of like Mr. Rogers, if he was in the Blues Brothers.
Yeah, I think that would be the best way to describe my last minute attire.
So at this point, my costume situation had improved. Not great, but better. I was hanging out in my friend’s suite while she and her suitemates were learning the nuances of Halloween makeup, when my fellow Blues brother put down the guitar and put on some cleats, because he suddenly switched his costume to a “soccer star.”
This left me as some dude in a black cardigan about to head out with a guy who looked like he was going for a jog.
Despite this last minute catastrophe, we were still not the worst costume I saw all night.
Around 9:30, my gang of friends and I headed out for our first experience of Chapel Hill Halloween.
We stopped by our dorm lobby, where we saw other friends, got some food and played a few games. It was here that I saw the worst costume of the night.
My suitemate Andrew told us he was going as a tree, which I thought would be pretty cool. What it turned out to be, however, was a guy in a green shirt with two twigs strapped to his body.
Not exactly groundbreaking.
After some sharp criticism of Andrew’s costume, we went to Franklin Street, ready to participate in the festivities for the very first time. I was not really sure what to expect, but needless to say, I was excited.
Once arriving on the street, I began to feel much more self-conscious about my own costume. So many people had put so much effort into it and I was quite literally the saddest attempt at a Blues Brother — or the most gothic attempt at Mr. Rogers.
My favorite costume was a group that was dressed up as the president and his security staff. It was entertaining to watch them move in a security detail formation through this mass of people, as "Obama" made his way down Franklin.
We walked all over the street and saw many friends along the way — it seemed like everyone I knew was on Franklin.
While walking around, we ran into my sister and her friends, who came from NC State, in a silent but understood declaration that UNC is and will always be the superior of the schools.
We hung out with my sister for a bit, but then began the hunt for food. We headed for the famed Food Truck Rodeo.
I am a big fan of the idea of a mobile restaurant. Also, after a long night of walking Franklin and admiring all the cool costumes, I was dying for a glass of water.
We ate and there was much rejoicing. We decided that we'd had our fill of Halloween and to head back to Ehringhaus.
I spent the night feeling self-conscious about my costume and admiring others' costumes, but ultimately I had the honor of sharing my Halloween with some really great people.
At the end of the night, we all gathered in my friend's room, turned on some jazz and enjoyed being young and at UNC.
university@dailytarheel.com
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