That time of year

Getting into the spirit of Halloween, I went and spent a bit of time at a costume store here in Las Cruces.  This costume store is a national chain that is only open during this time of the year.  Once inside, I was quick to notice the amount of kids running around the store, inspecting all of the costumes.  I was also shocked to see what these children were looking at.  Accompanied by their parents, many of the children, under the age of 15.  These kids, mostly female were looking at costumes that would be expected to be worn more so by college students or people of an older age.  The people shopping for costumes were usually in larger groups, with the number of children outnumbering the adults.

 I saw quite a few groups that consisted of two adults, most commonly two women, probably sisters of in laws, and a variety of children that came with them.  The biggest of these groups was a Caucasian family.  The family consisted of the two women, both around the age of 40, with 7 kids with them.  The kids were typically well behaved, except occasionally, two of the younger boys would put on a mask and start laughing for playfully screaming.  The women that were keeping them would then turn and sternfully say the name of the kids that were messing around, and it would immediately cease.

Also in the store, was a Hispanic family consisting of about 3 children all under the age of 10, two men around the age of 30, and a woman of about the same age.  Instead of costumes, this family was looking at the decorations.  In the store, various displays were set up showing what some of the decorations could look like if put together in a certain way.  Some of the displays were motion activated, or had to be turned on by a button.  The family seemed to be looking for some scary decorations, and judged each display by how afraid each of the children seemed.  This seemed like a weird dynamic for which the family to function, and they finally decided on a display when another young child around the age of 6 wondered over, and started crying due to the display. 

Another set of patrons that I noticed was a couple of Asian descent, it was a man and a woman, who were either dating or married.  They were both in their mid to late twenties.  These two were looking for a matching costume.  They either wanted a costume that came in the same kit for them, or identical ones.  The couple was in the store for about 45 minutes, they would pick up a costume, comment on it, and they would both laugh before putting it back.  This went on for quite a while before they ended up settling on the bacon and eggs costume.