As Halloween approaches, there is one thing I know I can count on this weekend — cheap candy. Since my trick-o-treating days have ended I can always depend on local stores to pile candy bags at a discount price in a shopping cart at the front of the store.

Usually, candy consumers need to arrive early if they want the good stuff i.e. Reese’s, Snickers and M&M’s.

Still, for some reason people like to fight over Tootsie Rolls, miscellaneous candy and the dreaded candy corns (you know who you are).

The candy fixes my hunger for chocolate, but I still miss being a child during Halloween. I always enjoyed trick-or-treating, even though I was in it mostly for the free candy. But I usually had some creative costumes.

Though I can’t say much for the costume I wore for my first Halloween. My mother decided I would go as a bumblebee. Unfortunately pictures exist. I’m wearing a yellow leotard with yellow stockings and if you look closely you will see my black stripes are made of masking tape wrapped around me. Then there is the antennae headband, which complements the outfit to perfection.

Laugh all you want, but just remember some of you could get so wrapped up in the Halloween spirit you believed you were a superhero for a day. There’s always the Batman who would run down the street as his cape billowed in the wind as if he were in flying mode (Warning: This cape will not actually allow you to fly), all the while only being able to extend one arm because the other is tightly grasping a candy bucket.

As for me, I would usually go as a witch, Pippy Longstockings or Lucy from the Peanuts cartoon strip, which only required my black hair and plain clothes. You would never see me as a clown because they freak me out. Nor would you find me trick-or-treating with any kid in a clown suit because I would have to ditch him or her at the driveway and never look back.

As I got older, Halloween got easier because I would throw on my New York Mets jersey every year and say I was a bat girl. Our neighbor Mrs. Russo caught on after the third year, but I would just smile and say “You must have been thinking of someone else.”

No matter the costume I wore for Halloween, my pumpkin bucket (or pillowcase) would fill up quickly. My bucket would especially get heavy when someone left a candy dish with a note that read, “Do not take more than one.” My friends and I would take a few handfuls as one of us watched out for any other neighborhood kids trying to interrupt our heist.

But trick-or-treating wasn’t always that easy because sometimes you would get apples. One Halloween I got an apple from this grouchy lady who lived on my block and never spoke to any of her neighbors.

I remember the lady gave my friends and I apples and told us she doesn’t buy candy for Halloween. Let’s just say the lady didn’t even open the door the following year.

It didn’t matter anyway because I always had more than enough candy. After the porch lights started to dim and my feet started to ache I would return home with my bucket of candy. I would immediately go for the chocolate and I would always make the good candy last for at least a week. My candy collection would gradually wither away until the only things left were the mints the senior citizens slipped in my bag with a handful of pennies. And, of course, those damn candy corns.

Grace Agostin is a senior and is The Oracle’s associate editor. oraclegrace@yahoo.com