When thinking about past Halloween's, I recall one Halloween in particular from my childhood. I remember that my sister was dressed as a non-specific country girl, like Snow White when she was with the Dwarfs. She had a red checked apron, and a plastic face mask.

I was dressed in a suit, and also wore a face mask. I can remember standing in the driveway with my sister, waving our hands in the air, while my father took still pictures and made home movies using the film-based movie camera we had at the time.

Remembering the house we lived in at the time, I put my age at six or seven years old, making the year 1979-1980.

But what makes this the Costume of Ultimate Embarrassment? Well, at the time, nothing. I seem to remember knowing that I was dressed as a man, but I think that was all I knew my costume was. Until a few years ago.

We were sitting in my parents' house, looking through old photo albums. And then I saw it. The old-fashioned, rounded-corner picture taken that Halloween when I was six or seven was staring back at me. In the picture, I am standing next to my sister in the driveway. With both hands, I am making the shape of a V'the peace sign. Who was the mask on my face? The face of Richard Nixon!

Not only had my parents dressed me in a Richard Nixon costume, they'd done it years after Nixon had been impeached and ousted from office. I can only imagine the hilarity I caused in the neighborhood that Halloween night. A six-year-old Canadian girl dressed as a former, impeached President of the United States.

In all honesty, for all I know, I might have thrown a tantrum in the costume shop insisting that my mom buy the "man mask" for me. But I think I prefer blaming it all on my parents.