By Michele D. Baker
October may be my favorite month. In my humble opinion, all the best things happen in October: barbecue festivals, cooler weather, and the best holidays ever, Florida’s Oktoberfests and Halloween.
My love of beer began early. My father was drafted into the Vietnam war in the first round and was posted overseas to Germany when I was just days old. As soon as I was eligible for a passport – at 6 weeks of age – my mother and I joined him in Stuttgart. The easy proximity to good beer must have made the whole family happy!
That first autumn my mother’s parents and brother came over to visit for a few weeks, and the whole family attended Oktoberfest in Munich.
There’s a great photo of all of us – my mother and father, me, my maternal grandparents, and my uncle – sitting around a large beer hall table covered with empty steins of beer. I’m sitting in my dad’s lap and my uncle, wearing a traditional Tyrolian green felt hat with pins and a feather, is making sure I don’t fall off his lap. Although I was only a few months old, my mother has told me many times that I happily drank the beer dregs from many of those mugs.
As I got a bit older, my paternal grandfather used to share his beer with me. I would get him a cold beer, grab the church key off the refrigerator door (it was attached by a long piece of green yarn to the handle) and puncture the top of a steel can of Schlitz, Budweiser or Pabst Blue Ribbon. Since the beer almost always foamed out the little triangular hole (and the can was already in my hand), I was allowed to slurp off the first couple of sips before handing the can over to him. (Interesting side note: in 2012, a Seattle brewery called Churchkey decided to bring back flat top steel cans. Too bad the company didn’t last.)
A few years later, in the mid-1970s, dad also let me share his beer (either the first sip or two, or the last).
As for my other favorite… candy! They say that sugar is as bad for you as alcohol, but personally, I am a fan of both. My parents were pretty health-conscious, so it goes without saying that we weren’t allowed much sugar. But the one exception was Halloween. My brother and I used to dress in the quintessential 1970s polyester costumes: my brother was usually Superman, and I was usually a witch.
Related: 60 Beer Themed Holidays for Those Who Love The Hops and Malt
Once home from trick-or-treating, we dumped our hoard out onto the orange shag rug and sorted it: chocolate in one pile, Sweet Tarts in another pile, jellybeans and gummy candies in a third pile. Luckily, my brother and I had very different taste in candy: he hates peanut butter, so I got all the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and I am not a fan of “gummy” anything, so that all went in his pile. O, happy day!
Related: Just in Time for Halloween: “Recipes from the Grave”
Now as an adult, I am still a Bonafide October-lover. I make plans for barbecues with friends, beer dates at the brewery across the street from my house (yes, really: Fertile Ground Brewery!), and I always dress up for Halloween. (I’m still a witch.)
This October, enjoy all this amazing month has to offer. Find things that remind you of childhood and savor the memories.
Until next time,
