Jacob's Halloween Pokémon Memories
The memories of a Pokémon fan called Jacob, which include a special Halloween costume party in 1999, dressed as a Charmeleon
Jacob is a Pokémon fan who began his journey with the series during the height of Pokémania. One in particular was when he attended a Halloween costume party in 1999, dressed as a Charmeleon! Jacob goes on to share several other memories, including his collection and a permanent tribute to a series that continues to be a big part of his life.
Pokémon has always been a love of mine. From my first time seeing all of the “Pocket Monsters,” I was totally enthralled by it. There’s a picture of me [dressed] as Charmeleon. I remember it was 4th grade, and I was almost eight years old. A classmate was having a Halloween costume party! My mom took me to the store and there was that Charmeleon mask in all of its splendor. I had to have it! No costume to go with it, but that wasn’t an issue. In fact, I can’t remember having any Halloween costumes that my mom didn’t make from scratch for my siblings and me. So in her own words, “I just made the rest of the costume in a day at the last second.” She has always been super creative at making things work in a pinch.
The actual party and that Halloween are a bit hazy for me memory-wise, but I feel like there were like three other Charmeleons at the party and our costumes were a huge hit as Pokémon was taking our school by storm! For me, it was literally my favorite thing; I had themed birthday parties and I loved the little Tomy figures, as well as all the stuff in like Pop Tarts boxes (also figurines) and Burger King toys! We really were lucky back then.
Of course, besides the games, which I still play to this day, my favorite thing was the cards. Man, it was such a big part of our childhood culture! Not only did we get cards from my parents, we would trade them at school, trade them with neighbors; heck, I used to even do chores for my friend's mom to be able to pick from a pack she would open. Somehow my brother and I only got energies while her kids were pulling Rocket’s Moltres and things like that.
In fact, there’s one story that sticks out to me. I was probably nine, my brother was 11 and my mom and dad needed us to watch our six-year-old sister for like two hours. So they “hired” said neighbor to watch her. She was [around] our age too, so all of us just hung out with my sister. Her payment was [that] she got to pull a card from a [booster pack]…and it was just a Raticate. Nothing special, right? My brother and I lost our ****! “That’s so unfair that she gets that card! We helped too!” Looking back, I always crack up about how emotionally distressed we got over that, lol. It’s one of my favorite cards to this day for that reason.
I still love Pokémon to this day! I’m nearing 33, have two kids of my own, and I still collect the cards [and] play all of the games that come out. I even have a huge Ho-Oh tattoo on my forearm! I think Gen 2 was my favorite. I remember when it got “leaked” or something and only a select few [Pokémon] were revealed. But at the time, the names were only in Japanese, so somewhere my brother’s journal has them all drawn up with their Japanese names written, lol.
I love that Pokémon has become multigenerational for me, and while my kids are too young for cards, they love having me play with the action figures with them, or with the plushies. My son, to the best of his ability, will even “play” Pokémon Go with me. I don’t ever see myself moving on from it. I still talk to my friend in that picture of my Pokémon-themed birthday about the cards, as he’s still a big collector, too. We were buying booster boxes back in 2014-15 for like $300+ just for nostalgia, and wow, what a great time to buy those.
I am thankful to Jacob for sharing his memories with us. It’s great to see how much the Pokémon series remains a part of his life, and I hope it will continue to bring him many happy memories in the years ahead.