2020, Family, Gatherings, holidays, Kids, Uncategorized

Best Costume

31 Comments

Daughter informed me she is going as Guy Fieri for Halloween this year.  She showed me a trial run, and she somehow,  with her long brown  tresses,  got a bleached blonde, sticking straight up, head of hair complete with head band and goatee.  Gone are the days when she wanted to be a princess or a fairy.

In my grad school days I once had to accompany a distraught client to the ER on Halloween.  The clinic tracked me down at a costume  party where I had dressed like an enormous strawberry.  (I sewed the costume  myself).  I showed up at the hospital in costume.  I was lucky they didn’t hospitalized me instead of the client!

I used to sew elaborate costumes for our children, and I will be quite ready to sew for my grandson in the future. This year is a not the best for fun costumes,  although I bet he would make a pretty cute Guy Fieri.

What are some of your favorite costume memories,  Halloween or otherwise?

31 thoughts on “Best Costume”

  1. When her grandson, Leo, was about four, our friend, the one with the expansive Christmas creche, made him an entire pope costume, including the mitre. He trick-or-treated that year as Pope Leo. Another year she outfitted him as The Dude from “The Big Lebowsky”.

    My granddaughter, when she was about eight, wanted to dress up as a sea cucumber. Her mother made her basically a cylindrical brown sack with an opening for her face and that’s what she wore. One can’t help wondering what people speculated she was supposed to be.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  5. I love me a good costume party, though I’ve never actually sewed a special costume for such an occasion. I have, however, put together some fun costumes from items found at local thrift shops. The hard part is coming up with the idea for what you want to be, and then find the costume parts to create it.

    When I lived in the old mansion here on the West Side, a glorious old house that because of it’s location, size, and somewhat dilapidated grandeur, lent itself well to Halloween parties, I hosted several. Some friends showed up in really creative costumes. Some were quite elaborate in detail and you could tell the wearer had put quite a bit of effort and/or expense into it. Others were pretty simple, but quite effective.

    One friend came dressed as a sheikh, his girlfriend as a member of his harem. She had made the costumes, and they were quite stunning. Another friend came as a bag of jellybeans: a large clear plastic bag filled with small inflated balloons in various colors. There was a WWI pilot, complete with an aviator helmet and goggles. A cowboy, a mummy, a go-go girl, and Mary Poppins were there, too. One friend was bandaged, head to toe in gauze, with strategic blotches of “blood.” The father of my friend and neighbor, Peppermint Patty, came dressed as himself: a pastor. He asked to have his picture taken with the boss, another friend who came dressed as Jesus carrying a large cross.

    It was at one of those parties that I discovered among the attendees a young couple who had crashed my party. They were both costumed, though I don’t recall what they were wearing. They had been invited to a costume party somewhere in the neighborhood, but had been unable to find it. They had spotted the costumed folks entering my house and decided to check it out. They were having a good time and stayed the for the duration of the party. Fun times.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  6. Oh, I have so many favorite costume memories! Son Joel loved to get in costume, and I would help him create them. I think the only store-bought one was ‘piderman at age 3. Let’s see… Peter Pan for a costume birthday party (it was mentioned that he “channeled” Peter Pan). Even as an adult, he was once the Man In Black (from Princess Bride): https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=princess+bride+man+in+black+costume

    One year when Joel was still being a cat, we figured out cat costumes for all of us, and I made the headpieces.

    I love costumes too if I can think of one. Favorite was driving to a Halloween party in Oakland circa 1970 as a nun, and stopping for (self-serve) gas. And Husband and I went to a “Come as you Aren’t” cross-dressing party with me in a tux and he in a pale blue formal. : )

    I WISH I could show you the photos of some of these…

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  7. I attended a Bob Dylan concert once at the what was then called the Civic Center in St. Paul on Halloween. I was struck by how many in the audience came dressed inn costumes. Except for the fact that the date I was with at the concert turned out to be a complete dud, it was a fun evening.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  8. Elton John did an October concert at the old Civic Center sometime in the mid 1970s. I took my kid sister to it for the 18th birthday. I don’t remember if any of the audience was in costume but Sir Elton had several great ones.

    Halloween has never been one of my favorite holidays. I did the Trick or Treating as a kid but it seems like many of the Halloweens were cold so that our coats covered our costumes. As an adult, I avoided costume parties for the most part – am not big on creating costumes. One year I went to my sister’s party dressed in our dad’s old winter wool Navy uniform. For another party (back in the 80s) I went as a piece of sheet music. That was my last appearance at a costume party. Because I have lived in a secured condo since the early 80s, I haven’t had Trick or Treaters for decades. Can’t say that I’ve missed it.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

      1. For sheet music, I drew a grand staff with notes (don’t remember what song but probably something classical) on a clean white bedsheet, cut a hole for my head, and wore it like a poncho over black turtleneck and black pants. I also drew treble and bass clefs on my face. I may have accessorized further but can’t remember now.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

  9. OT – Just because. Every day needs a little poetry in it.

    Hanging on…

    “The whole idea of it makes me feel
    like I’m coming down with something,
    something worse than any stomach ache
    or the headaches I get from reading in bad light–
    a kind of measles of the spirit,
    a mumps of the psyche,
    a disfiguring chicken pox of the soul.

    You tell me it is too early to be looking back,
    but that is because you have forgotten
    the perfect simplicity of being one
    and the beautiful complexity introduced by two.
    But I can lie on my bed and remember every digit.
    At four I was an Arabian wizard.
    I could make myself invisible
    by drinking a glass of milk a certain way.
    At seven I was a soldier, at nine a prince.

    But now I am mostly at the window
    watching the late afternoon light.
    Back then it never fell so solemnly
    against the side of my tree house,
    and my bicycle never leaned against the garage
    as it does today,
    all the dark blue speed drained out of it.

    This is the beginning of sadness, I say to myself,
    as I walk through the universe in my sneakers.
    It is time to say good-bye to my imaginary friends,
    time to turn the first big number.

    It seems only yesterday I used to believe
    there was nothing under my skin but light.
    If you cut me I could shine.
    But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life,
    I skin my knees. I bleed.”

    ~ ‘On Turning Ten’ by Billy Collins

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  10. I went to the Wolfman when I was about 20 and glued the air on it was horrible itched all night long did it down to the neck did the hans did the legs and itched everywhere

    when I was a kid I wanted to be a pirate and my mom made me blousy sleeves on a white shirt and a vest and I was the pie radiused pirate ever born

    this year are used to and understands the concept of Halloween but it’s only going to his grandmas house into my house and maybe one of their friends who has a dog and that will be the extent of Halloween

    He has a skeleton outfit that he likes but he will also be able to choose from a lion outfit because he is so good at drawing and it will be more fun than trying to figure out how to be a participant with only a skeleton outfit

    I heard the neighbors asking one of the parents of the little kids in my neighborhood if they were going to be coming out this year because on a normal year we get about six kids so I don’t have to buy the big bag of candy I’ll just have a small one and eat most of that myself

    Like

    Reply

  11. I had a few masks and costumes over the years. We’d have to go in to Grandpa or Grandma’s houses. Course we never got any T&T at our place.
    For the kids, they’d have the costume parade at school. Sometimes there would be 5 kids with the same costume and if the face was covered it was only the shoes that gave it away.
    I remember being 20 and going to a party with some friends. I was probably just wearing my ruffled shirt (Remember, this was 198X and those were some BIG ruffles. And some girl flirted with me. She was in a mask and I’ve no idea who she was… it didn’t go far, but I do remember that. 🙂 Ah youth.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  12. Daughter had a lovely princess costume in kindergarten. Unfortunately, she got sent home on Halloween with the chicken pox. She tried to go trick or treating to a couple of houses in the neighborhood, but collapsed on the corner and her dad carried her home. She tried to sleep on the living room sofa, and was awakened in the middle of the night by our anxiety biting Fox terrier savaging our elderly Welsh Terrier. There was blood all over, and we had to take the Welshie to the vet, who stitched her up and advised us to have the fox terrier put down, which we did . I still feel terrible about that. It was not the best Halloween for daughter.

    Like

    Reply

  13. I recall putting together a gypsy costume one year, with brightly colored skirts and blouse, dangly earrings and lots of bangle bracelets. I think I borrowed a tambourine from somewhere and shook it for effect. Of course, it wouldn’t fly today – dressing up as a symbol of an enslaved and repressed ethnic group strikes me as rather culturally insensitive.

    I have never really done costumes as an adult. One year a coworker of mine had a Halloween party and gave me some vintage clothing that resembled something a 40’s movie star would wear. There was a hat that I pinned in place at a sort of jaunty angle, IIRC. I bought some red lipstick.

    I admire other people’s creativity. I saw a photo of a woman who went to a costume party as a ceiling fan. Her costume was a T-shirt on which she’d written “GO CEILING!!”

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    2. My little guy, Jory, became ill at age 12, and the vet suggested it was probably lymphoma. It turned out he had a tumor in his digestive system which was not immediately obvious, but was inoperable. He had difficulty keeping food down, but still lived for another four years with a pretty good quality of life, mostly due to a recommendation from a friend to feed him baby food. It’s very easy for cats to digest. For four years I opened many many jars of chicken and ham baby food. He loved it. Isabel got a fair amount of baby food in her senior years too, and now Sammy gets an occasional jar of ham.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.