Shoup Airlines

Trick or Treat?

It’s been quite some time since getting the chance to fire up the imagination furnaces for a Halloween costume. I’m not really sure what happened in college and why I, nor anyone I knew for that matter, never costumed up. Lack of funds maybe? Or was it the overwhelming doom of winter setting in? After college, as luck would have it, I’d always work Halloween. The company frowned upon pilots dressing up, something about professionalism and all that…blah, blah, blah. Plus, always having to wear that monkey suit, one gets tired of wearing a “costume” of sorts.

To make a short story longer, this year was the first time I had an opportunity to once again let loose. Unfortunately, not having a job at all puts a damper on availability of Halloween parties. No one I knew seemed to be having one either, so I didn’t give costume possibilities much thought. That is until Kara, a.k.a. ME of the Comments, and also tri-creator of The Wager, dropped an invite in my lap less than 24 hours prior to the party. I almost bowed out simply on the grounds that I didn’t think I could come up with something worthy enough.

Kara: Wear your pilot uniform.

Shoup: Nah, trite. No imagination.

Kara: Wear your Army BDUs.*

Shoup: Nah, hackneyed. No creativity. I don’t know if I’ll go.

The next day I woke up and realized how stupid it would be to turn the invite down. Not like I was doing anything else, right? It was just a question of if I could come up with something good enough, fast enough. To the all powerful oracle, Google, I went seeking knowledge. All I found were some really stupid ideas and an outrageously expensive Darth Vader costume. But it looks frellin’ cool, doesn’t it? Anyway, after searching mindlessly and getting no ideas, I turned my back on the oracle. I guess there’s a first for everything.

Then the idea hit me up side the head like a manhole cover moving at the speed of an improbability drive! You cannot fathom how difficult it was to find a small toy bi-plane, I think I would have had better luck searching for the Holy Grail in my dirty clothes hamper with my eyes closed. Trying not to make this a Homer-ish epic, a beer (or drink of your choice) to anyone that can figure the character out.**

*BDUs: Battle Dress Uniform, the infamous camouflage fatigues that most branches of the military wear.

**Anyone with the last name of Pietila, Dodge, Krastman, or Shoup is disqualified from said contest as they already know.