I have mixed feelings about Halloween. My mother was good at alot of things, but sewing and crafts were not her strong suit. Store-bought costumes were the norm in our house until we all took dancing lessons and wore our recital costumes (from June) as our Halloween costumes (in October.) Of course, living in the Northeast, this meant wearing at least a sweater, usually a coat, over our costumes. We felt more like flashers than trick or treaters as we opened our coats on every doorstep to show "what we were." My brothers usually dressed as hobos which took little or no effort. (Doesn't say much for their wardrobes.)
I remember Halloween 1962 or '63 when my sister Toni and brother Ned went dressed as Kennedy and Castro. Store-bought costumes, of course. Ned spent most of the night trying to find a match to light the cigar my Dad had given him to complete his Castro look. (Remember the Cuban Missile Crisis? If not, you may be young enough to still be going trick or treating. Stop reading now.)
This same year I went in a store-bought costume of a hot dog. The fabric was one step up from paper, you stepped into it and tied it behind your neck. One size fit all, which as a 7 year old meant I could wear my jacket under the costume and still have plenty of room. I looked like a Ball Park Frank that "plumped when you cooked it." Since the hot dog costume did not come with a mask, and everyone wore masks, my mom found a bear mask in our attic from the previous year and that completed my look. (Refer back to the second sentence above about Mom's creativity talent.) This was the one year I wished I could have worn my coat on the outside. Even as a seven year old, I knew there really is no way to explain why a hot dog would have a bear 's face. Nevertheless, every neighbor at every house would ask me to explain my costume. I tried to give them a blank stare, but my eyes didn't quite match up with the holes in the mask. So I resorted to a cold silence and bashful shrug.
The things we put up with for a little (or in our case a lot) of candy. This was when candy bars came only in full size, not like today's "fun size". Our neighborhood was large and filled with families....a Halloween mecca. The Richards' was the only house that gave out apples. We would quickly pass them by, trying to give them the evil eye. (Again, mask eye holes made this impossible.)
I have decided my feelings for Halloween are not mixed after all. I wouldn't change a thing. My mom was good at so many other things, all the important things, I can accept her lack of costume talent. (After all, my son, John, went dressed as a spider 3 Halloweens in a row until his Carter cousins started sending their hand me down costumes.) The gene pool runs deep!
