Many share the humiliation of a costume gone terribly wrong. It is one of the scariest things about Halloween. WBEZ’s Steve Edwards shared the horror of his worst Halloween costume on Eight Forty-Eight.

I still have not recovered from my worst costume disaster and it happened more than 30 years ago. I was in the second grade, and like many second grade boys in 1977, I was addicted to Star Wars. So, naturally, I decided to dress as a Star Wars storm trooper that Halloween. I found the mask and the costume at the local Kmart, and I was ready to play out my Death Star fantasies on the Trailwood Elementary School playground. The only problem was that my parents were too cheap to spring for the full costume. My dad, in a fit of uncharacteristic creativity, said he had a much better idea: We would buy the mask and do the rest at home. So that’s how I showed up to school that Halloween day, dressed in a storm tropper mask and my white waffle thermal long underwear. Now, second graders aren’t sophisticated about many things. But, friends, let me tell you, they know Halloween costumes. They also know underwear. And, they know there’s a big difference between the two.

It turns out that I’m not alone when it comes to Halloween disasters. Eight Forty-Eight hit the streets of Chicago to get some personal stories of triumphs and tragedies this Halloween.