The Baboon Congress

Halloween Hijinks

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Today’s guest post comes from tim.

My 13-year-old daughter is very excited that Halloween is on Friday night this year.

She asked me about the origins of Halloween and I being a good recovering Catholic coming from a good Catholic household knew that Halloween is the celebration of the fighting from the spirits on the day before all souls day.

On all souls day heaven comes down and takes the good spirits directly to heaven with no stop in purgatory on the way but if you’re not  a good spirit you may end up going to hell instead.

My father was a person who was involved in activities at the Catholic church and was asked on numerous occasions to spend the night of all souls day in church guarding against the possibility that the spirits could be taken to evil places if they were not guarded properly.  This evolved into our wearing costumes and hiding from the demons.

When people from other parts of the world, and ask what is this Halloween holiday it’s a hard one to explain.

“Well we have the children dressed up as ghosts and goblins and they go knock on peoples doors and threatened that we will trick you if you don’t give us a treat and beg for candy expecting for the house to be prepared for our begging.  Some of the side benefits are that you can go to someone’s house you don’t like and toilet paper their tree sold their windows egg their cars and do awful things to people in the name of the holiday tradition.”

I remember my favorite costume was that of a pirate in fifth-grade complete with big blousey sleeves on my pirate shirt.

In later life I went to the barbershop and got hair clippings to glue on  along with a putty nose to complete my Wolfman attire.

At my house now if I get 10 kids it’s a big year – this is because of my long driveway.

My work associate took great delight in hiding in the bushes outside his house so that when children came to get candy from his wife at the door upon their turning around to leave the house he would spring out with raised hands and yell boo and make them cry and run away sometimes dropping the candy bags they were so scared.

I think any place that allows people to exhibit such behavior should be celebrated.  We are such a predictable anal society today that I think finding an excuse for people to get into costume and take on identities while dangerous is also good therapy.

It makes me think that I should start contemplating my costumes once again.  The only thing that’s kept me from doing it is the realization that it’s just going to be for those 10 kids to come down the driveway.

What would you be if you could?

58 thoughts on “Halloween Hijinks”

  2. Good morning. I would be President of the Untied States. I would not last very long in this position because I would try to make what I think would be important changes in the operation of our country. People who are apposed to what I would try to do would find a way to get me out of office very quickly.

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    1. i dont know jim. whos the guy i the south american or dcentral american country who showed up as the common man for president duty and turned the country around and got it on the right track with common sense.
      it could be you. maybe just not here not now, any country that is not quite so screwed up.

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    2. l wouldn’t mind being president if Congress there was a majority democratic. Might be kind of fun actually. l think of all the progress we’d have made by now had not one party completely shut down tantrum-style.

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  5. i think dale did a nice job of editing the mess i sent into him and turning it into a blog for today. i meant to get back to it but…..
    this year im thinking cowboy just because with boots and a hat you can do a big job disguising you real self.
    i did go to a costume sale this past summer and bough some cool stuff among it the frankenstein boof that make you a foot taller. it would be fun for the family passing through on their waty to festivities but im not sure the kids coming by would notice. they dont know im a foot shorter in real life. being 6.9 instead of 5 9 is only a shocker if you were expecting a 5’9″ guy. a 6 9 cowboy? huh maybe…

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  6. The question is what I’d be if I could be anything? Easy! I’d like to be me again, a young version of me knowing some of the things I’ve learned over the years. I’d like to be a young me with my life before me and a chance to do it better than I did.

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  7. I think I’d do my nun costume again. It’s not too hard – black skirt and sweater, white pillow case for the wimple, black fabric veil… That got such great reactions – drove my VW across the Bay Bridge to a party in Oakland, had to stop to get gas, and you should have seen the stares. Then the person who answered the door wasn’t sure whether to let me in…

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    2. When I lived in the old mansion I had wonderful Halloween parties. My neighbor, Peppermint Patti’s father was a minister, and one year she brought him to the party. Another guest came dressed as Jesus. Patti’s dad asked to have his picture taken with Jesus who he referred to as “the boss.”

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    3. l knew a woman who dressed as a nun. On the way home from the party, she was hit by a drunk driver and nearly died. Ever since then, she honestly believes that this was God’s punishment for mocking him.
      Don’t take your chances!

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    4. id love to go as a nun with a beard. i have seen olts of em with mustaches but never a beard. isnt that sex discrimination if they wont let men be nuns

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        1. naw. monks do monk stuff that is completely different form nun stuff. no one ever heard of a school full of monks ( well st johns is a little like that) but nins all the time.
          monk tend to work in the fields and do chores like woodworking and running a team of horses in the field. what if the job of a male nun was to macrame for the lord… nuns seem to be more spiritual and monks get to labor by god.
          how did williston end up being a bust for hans? not what he expected? bad light? didnt tell the story he was visualizing?

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        2. He turned around within 100 miles from Williston because of heavy traffic – tanker trucks, construction vehicles, dusty pick-up trucks. He realized he wouldn’t be able to get anywhere near what he wanted to take photos of. From having read Renee’s descriptions on the blog about what’s going on out there, I wasn’t surprised, but I think Hans was taken aback.

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        3. It is a good thing he turned around. Husband informs me that the major bridge over the Missouri on Highway 85 by Williston is closed,and he would have had to back track almost 100 miles if he had tried to get there on the route he had considered. the truck traffic on those roads is unfathomable the first time you encounter it.

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  8. l absolutely love dressing in costumes (no surprise here!). lf l could wear one or another every day, l’d revel in it. Over the years, l’ve accumulated quite a collection and often find a way to wear them on occasions other than the permitted Halloween. “Ms Santa” while Xmas shopping; “Leprechaun” on St. Patrick’s Day (also my birthday). l have “Hot Cop”, “Little Miss Muffin”, “Friendly Cougar”, and “Vikings Fan”. l doubt that l’ll ever wear THAT one again!

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    1. i went to a garage sale in my hat and wearing a vintage jacket. the wonderful older lady exclaimed . “you are just like my son and his wife in new york city they dress up in an outfit like that every day” it mademe feel kind of odd but validated” last year i took son to the car lot and a friend asked if i was dressed for halloween with my fedora and trench coat. i think when i looked at him quizzickly he felt like i did the time i asked the woman if she was pregnant and she shot some daggers at me after the confusion left her face. wearing an outft doesnt have to be a major commitment . it can be a start to the day. the theme is …. i dont know cb if you have to go with santa nad st patrick maybe a bit of red and a bit of green would make you feel in charachter without making it a scene. then again a scene is okay sometimes huh?

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      1. I was an English teacher.
        But that scene is pure teacher stuff. Only teachers I suspect fully appreciate the faculty party and faculty meeting in the book.
        At the party. Mr. Vince Workman, who is in line to be supt. comes in a suit he wears every day to school, because as he explains to our hero, he wants to see if the faculty notices it, to see how the teachers perceive him.

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    4. i loved staggerford but i will enjoy it again the next time i read it as much as the first. jon writes in a fshion that more than any other writer makes me feel like i am crawling into my cozy little womb and getting tucked in with a good story. i loved his writing and always looked forward to his ext work, he and pat conroy
      long way of saying dont remember the party either

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  10. This is a fraught question for the costumer, as we suffer the fate of the shoemaker’s children.

    Someday, I shall have my Queen of Scots frock and the s&h will have his Prince Hal doublet.

    OT- the s&h ran a good race last night as the ecllipse was starting-best he has run to date—and missed going to State by 2 places.

    Last night was tough-this morning was all about winter training.

    That’s my boy!

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    1. This just in. S&h decided this year he needs to be Caesar (because, you know, Latin and all). He recalled that there is indeed a purple t-shirt in his wardrobe for a tunic and I have just accomplished something toga-esque using only 1 safety pin and a lifetime of draping experience.

      It’s almost as good as the 5 minute Robin Hood costume made of a piece of Berber fleece and an old belt (which has also seen stage time as Gaeseric, King of the Vandals), or the desperation Fireman made by grabbing the raincoat and fireman’s helmet after nailing some red elastic onto blue pants, stopping at the hardware store on the way to daycare for reflective tape and applying same to the raincoat on the hood of the car parked outside of daycare.

      The shoemaker’s children…..

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      1. I’m trying to ‘like’ this but WP doesn’t like me at the moment.
        Way to go Mig! Sounds like a great idea for S&H; right up his alley!

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      2. This makes me wish for a Tv show where contestants are supplied with identical piles of “stuff” from which to make costumes for, say, three different roles. In my mind, you’d have a blast doing that?

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  11. Mildly OT: my artistic friend Sue carves pumpkins at the Bronx Zoo weekends at this time of year. To see the astonishing work she does, Google “All Natural Arts” and look at photos down just a bit on the right side of the page. Just amazing.

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  12. Morning all (well, it’s morning where I am). tim – this is your hint, today at a gift shop I bought a book about the artist Antoni Gaudi.

    I love dressing up for Halloween (yes I understand I’m not actually answering the question correctly). One of my favorite costumes was The Crocodile Hunter. I made a large crocodile out of green upholstery foam that draped over my neck and then just added a khaki shirt and shorts. I did check online to see if I could find an Australian Zoo khaki shirt but they were running close to $100. This was actually before Steve Irwin died, so I’m assuming they’re probably way more now.

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