I love Halloween - I have since I was a tiny kid. But this year is a bit of a bummer. We're in the middle of moving, and the big push will be Halloween Saturday. So I can't decorate, and we'll barely have time to carve pumpkins. I'm NOT giving that up - move or no move.
I think my brother actually WORE this costume once.
Love how it's FLAME RETARDED!
As a kid, I loved the creepy weather around Halloween, and our local cartoon show (Dr. Max out of Cedar Rapids Iowa) would get us in the mood with old scary cartoons. Waiting those long hours after school and through dinner was like torture. You'd start to hear other kids hitting the streets and you were just SURE that if you didn't get your costumed-ass out there, you'd miss all the candy.Love how it's FLAME RETARDED!
My favorite treat was popcorn balls - remember when people would actually give you homemade stuff?? I lived for the popcorn balls. And some weird old coot was always pawning off Bit-O-Honey or black licorice. Blech!
We'd plan our costume for months. Usually it was something my Mom put together, but once in a while she'd let us pick out something at Ben Franklin. Remember those cheap-ass things? They were in shreds by the end of the night.
My 1st sister and I, probably about 1968.
I've made some great costumes for my own kids over the years too:
One year I made the cutest little witchy capes and stuffed giant witch hats with newspaper for the twins - they were almost three - they were the most adorable things. Another year I made them "troll" costumes by sewing up a big dress out of camo fabric, shredding the hem, and adding patches. Then we messed up black wigs and added sticks and leaves. When youngest was 2, we dressed her all in white: sweatshirt, turtleneck, and sweatpants. Then added pink bunny ears and a fluffy tail.
Costumes here can be difficult. It's usually about 30 degrees which makes the princess or the ballerina outfit a real challenge. Every year there's some kid in tears because he's got to wear his winter jacket over the coolest outfit ever.
There's not enough room to tell you about Halloween in college. For a bunch of poor kids we had some great costumes. One year my best pal and I went as the "Bruces" from Monty Python. No one recognized us, until later when we were stumbling home and guy dressed as Godzilla said "G'day Bruce!". We screamed and laughed and became his best friends. My sister once wore the perfect rendition of a giant bag of weed, complete with a tissue paper doobie twisted high above her head. We dressed one friend as Colonel Sanders, but we needed a KFC bucket to complete the look. When we walked into the local franchise, I thought the staff was going to collectively pee their pants.I do love Halloween - I'll just do it up even BETTER next year!
15 comments:
I can still smell the inside of that mask! Great memories - I, too, have always LOVED Halloween. One year I dressed as Viola Swamp and scared the kids at the school, chased Charlie around the parking lot, etc. Maybe I'll dress up and do something this year again.
I won a prize in downtown IC for that bag o weed, cheapest outfit ever! FUN FUN memories. Remember when hubby and Ali's hubby went as a bride and bridesmaid? Those photos still creep me out, I was the groom!
Email them to me and I'll post them!!!
I too loved the homemade stuff but you had to eat it quick before any adult saw you because they were all worried about poisons and stuff being in it, which we now know was just bullsh#t because there has never ever been a proven case of razor blades in apples or any poisons in homemade Halloween treats.
Hands down grossest candy - those peanut butter things that came in the black or orange wax paper wrappers. ugh. Maybe they didn't taste bad but the presentation- ick. And bit o'honey made me laugh- awful.
I absolutely will take any bit-o-honeys you have...the older, the better!
I think I had the ghost mask that you or your sister wore in the photo!
I, too, always made my kid's costumes. I love Halloween!
I grew up in a big city where all the neighborhood kids went all over the two streets and we could see each other's costumes. It was just warm enough out to be fun too. But in MN, I don't think so. Yes, there's the coat over the costume issue and also that we would have to drive out kids to various houses in town or in the country, the street lights were too wimpy, and mostly our kids didn't see other kids that they really knew. Over all, a big bummer. And hardly any kids came to our house, so what's the point of much decorating?
BTW, I've noticed that in eastern Wisconsin, the decorating it over the top, amazing.
Yes, just wait till next year--it will be awesome.
I agree about the weather-costume conundrum. It's hard to incorporate a parka, hat, and mittens into a small child's costume!!!
My last year of trick-or-treating was the big snow storm of '91: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_Blizzard
I was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. Talk about a last hoorah!
All my Halloween decorations are packed away since we thought we might be moving and still could go that route, I hope. I will be bummed about that with you. I did decorate my office a little.
Carve pumpkins before the squirrels eat them!
Let's have 2 Halloweens next year too!
I love Halloween too. I've made most of my daughters' costumes. It helps that their dad is an actor and has a ton of stage make-up. You can make up for this Halloween next year. I'll probably have to do the same thing.
My mom always made really great costumes, she had talent.
I remember the costumes in the box, I had a witch costume, and that creepy mask...........eek!
I'm so un-creative, my kids have had to settle for more store bought that not.
Now I mostly enjoy decorating and seeing the little ones knock on the door.
Thsoe costumes in a box, brought back memories. Now they all hang on hangers! Hope the move is an easy one and you can get your pumpkins carved - you can carve them for Thanksgiving and start a new tradition or trend.
We did the costumes in a box too for a few years. Then as we got older we made up our own costumes. My goal was to have at least a large paper bag full of candy by the end of the night and be working on bag number two. My kids didn't like trick or treating as much as I did. I think because we weren't allowed any candy usually so all that free candy was a must have. The hubby got the kids candy a lot behind my back so candy wasn't incentive enough to go knocking on people's doors.
Next year you will have the best kick ass Halloween ever!
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