Ghosts of Halloweens Past

Happy Halloween

Heart's Gladness is... Halloween Memories

My sister and I never wore "store-bought" costumes for Halloween (those stiff nylon things with plastic masks). Our mother was a consummate seamstress and a very creative person (she's still creative although I don't think she sews much anymore). Our costumes were always home-made and definitely creative.

One year I was an... I'm not sure what she was exactly... but I was a little round lady in a red and white polka dotted dress, with a mob cap and a frilly parasol. Whatever she was, I loved her dearly and played dressup in the costume for years after.

One year I was Frankenstein's monster; the monster was about 7 feet tall. His monster's head was made from a KFC bucket, covered in white paper and colored green, with eyes and hair made from construction paper (and ears that stuck out!). I held a crosspiece of 2x2 wood which wore the monster's shirt (a stuffed sweatshirt of my Dad's, with stuffed arms). I also wore a pair of my Dad's pants (belted just under my arms) and pair of his shoes. The trick-or-treat bag was attached to the monster's hands (in stuffed gloves). I could barely see, looking down at my feet beyond the hem of the shirt and my sister, dressed as Igor, guided me around. It was a great costume.

One year (of course) I was a witch; my sister was a black cat that year. Another year I recall we were both clowns in yellow and blue Harlequin costumes.

We never went door to door exactly. Our parents would put us in the car and we'd drive around town to friends' and relatives' houses. We had lots of fun (and plenty of treats) and our parents always knew where we were and whose houses we were visiting.

Our whole family carved pumpkins which we'd sit in the front windows of the house. In the very early years we put them on the front porch but after the year we woke to find pieces in the street we always kept the pumpkins inside. We'd light them ever night until they started to fall in on themselves.

My Halloween candy usually lasted till Christmas. I especially loved candy corn.

In fact, one year when I was about... 5? I asked for "a suitcase full of candy corn" for Christmas! Santa came through (ok, it was a very small suitcase and it held one bag of candy corn). I was told later by one of the elves that they had a very difficult time locating any candy corn in Central Pennsylvania in December!

Halloween was a lot of fun for me as a kid.

Ghosts of Halloweens Past ( in category Retrospectoscope , Treasures ) - posted at Sun, 31 Oct, 21:36 Pacific | «e»