The Slice: Pippi outfit doesn’t have same impact

This is the time of year when adults recall the Halloween costumes they wore long ago and little kids say, “Was the Lone Ranger before Power Rangers?” or “What’s an Aquaman?”

At dinner recently, Tadashi Osborne proudly told his children about the time their mother dressed up as Pippi Longstocking. He went on at some length about the detail and overall excellence of her costume.

Finally, one of the boys had a question: “Who the heck is Pippi Longstocking?”

That prompted a trip to the library.

So which of your costumes from Halloweens past would kids today simply not recognize?

Dr. Zaius? Hoss Cartwright? Cruella DeVille? Old Yeller with a case of the hydrophoby?

I think one year I went as Napoleon Solo. (My outfit bore a remarkable resemblance to my church clothes.) And something tells me there aren’t many kids today who know about “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”

•One messy way to check for ripeness: “My dad and my son-in-law are off hunting in Montana this week,” wrote Gina Emory of Sandpoint.

But apparently her 4-year-old grandson, Tyler, wasn’t sure if Emory understood the nature of that trip. So he explained it to her.

“Daddy and Grandpa Frank are hunting cantaloupes and deers,” said Tyler. “They shot a cantaloupe yesterday but not any deers.”

Emory told the boy that she was under the impression people usually found cantaloupes in grocery stores.

Fortunately, young Tyler was there to set the poor woman straight. “No, no you can’t,” he said. “You can only shoot them with a gun.”

•Just wondering: How many parents jokingly quote George Bailey from “It’s a Wonderful Life” and say, “You call this a happy family?”

•Pet peeves: For Eileen Bakken, it’s the difficulty of finding narrow shoes in a world that caters to wide feet.

One of Art Anderson’s is people pronouncing the real estate term “realty” as if it were spelled “real-i-ty.”

And though he understands how kids can be, Bob Jenson could live without coming upon young people walking in the middle of the street and then receiving dirty looks because he had the temerity to want to drive on a public road.

•Not obtuse: Denise Masiello’s daughter, Faith, a fifth-grader, recently looked at her mom and informed her that she had “math” on her face.

Masiello asked her what she meant. “She said that my crow’s-feet were acute angles.”

•Warm-up question: It could be argued that the America you see in TV commercials is a more racially integrated place than the real world. But does that hyper-diverse realm of happy consumers seem even more disconnected from everyday life when viewed in a place with demographics like Spokane’s?

•Today’s Slice question: What newlyweds set the local record for the shortest elapsed time between exchanging vows and getting into counseling?