Halloween Through the Ages

I love Halloween. I love that there is a day in the year when you will go to the grocery store and see people walking around as witches and ghosts and Harry Potters. It's like the world gives itself permission to have fun and be crazy for a day. I love it all - the costumes, the decorations, the pumpkins, the Halloween-themed T.V. episodes (especially Buffy), the candy, the parties, and the trick-or-treating. If it were not totally weird and creepy, I would probably still go trick-or-treating (plus the walking boot would slow me down). I feel bad for today's kids who don't get to experience real trick-or-treating. My friends and I were die-hard trick-or-treaters, and we would kit several entire neighborhoods in a single night, planning out routes beforehand to cover the most ground and then practically sprinting around to hit the most houses. We always came home with at least one pillowcase full of candy, and then the next day we had big candy trading parties. Trunk-or-treating in a strip mall parking lot just isn't the same.

Earlier this week I was thinking about Halloween costumes past, so I emailed my mom and asked her to send me some pictures from a few specific years. She ended up sending me a bunch more than I asked for and it was fun to see some of the costumes I had completely forgotten about. The one picture she didn't send me was the costume that got me reminiscing in the first place, but that's probably a good thing. The costume in question was from 3rd grade, around the time of Operation Desert Storm. For some reason my dad had come into possession of a real gas mask, and so I wore the gas mask, a towel tied around my head, a robe, and a fake gun and went as an Iraqi soldier. If I were to publish that picture here, I probably would never be able to run for public office (like that would ever happen) and I might just get an unexpected visit from homeland security. Besides, now I have a better idea what Iraqi soldiers actually look like, thanks to Lost's Sayid.

So let me take you on a personal tour of Halloweens past:

I had completely forgotten about this costume. I guess I'll be coming full circle this Halloween when I'm planning to dress up as Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I love it when people pass off a poodle skirt as a costume. What are you dressing as - a poodle skirt? I guess the answer could be a "50's teen girl." And Amy might just be wearing an old ballet recital costume.

This may not have been Halloween - I used to wear that karate outfit full-time when I was in my Karate Kid phase. The poodle skirt lives on another year. Emily should have collected her candy in a bindle, but that probably would have been problematic. These two photos beg the question: Where is my sister Julie? Maybe she was two old/cool for us back then.

Forgot about this one too - perhaps it's fate that my greatest life accomplishment is Mario-related, although I never play as Mario on Mario 2. My outfit reflects the color scheme of Mario 1, before Mario permanently switched to blue overalls and a red shirt. What can I say - I've always been a purist.

I can't tell you what I had in mind with this costume. The wig, nose-glasses, and tie all say "Big pile of wacky stuff!" but then I've got that incongruous army jacket on. I still have that tie, by the way, but it's back in Utah. I might just have to dig that out next time I'm back home. I had a piano recital that night and my teacher told me that all of her students who were playing in the recital were going to be wearing Halloween costumes. Nope. Just me. At first I felt really stupid, but then I felt cool because everyone else was boring and afraid to be different.

I alluded to this in a previous post about my Bob Dylan years. This was from my sophomore year of high school, the same year that I played "John Wesley Harding" in the talent assembly. Thanks to my mom for curling my hair for me and thanks to D.I. for that awesome shirt (I think that shirt is also still around back in Utah). The inspiration for this ensemble was the album cover of the classic Dylan album, Blonde on Blonde:

On with the tour:
This was my senior year of high school, and I remember that I had rehearsal that day for The Wizard of Oz and once again, I was the only one there in a Halloween costume. Later that day I got stopped on the street by some random person who said, "How dare you! Do you think it's funny to dress up like Hitler?" Fair enough I guess - even Chaplin exploited the Hitler 'stache comparisons in The Great Dictator. The yearbook ran a photo of me in this costume walking with a group of non-costumed people, accompanied by a quote where I said something like, "I don't really care about how I dress." I was really proud of that.

I hope you enjoyed the tour and I would encourage each of you to call your moms and ask them for your old Halloween pictures. And dress up this year and wear the costume all day - trust me, you'll have a great time and the world will be better for it.

Happy Halloween!