My younger brothers are here to see their nephew play in his last homecoming football game this weekend. Whenever they're around, I pull out old pictures and reminisce. Since it's that time of year, I thought I'd share some pictures of our Halloween costumes. It was 1967 and I wanted to be a witch. My middle brother is a pirate and the youngest is a bum. Mom couldn't get him to wear a mask, so drawing a moustache with an eyeliner pencil was the next easiest thing. We only went around the block that year 'cause he was too little to venture much further.
The next year, mom went all out. She made our costumes and even our trick or treat bags. She picked the perfect costume for my brothers. They're 18 months apart and still, to this day are completely devilish when they get together. You can see they're plotting something. I'm pretty sure the devil capes were made from a sheet mom dyed red. Mom also fashioned some sort of "scary ghost" from a bar stool and a sheet. Frightening, isn't it?
What? I hafta go as a clown again?! And the boys were dressed up like Groucho Marx. Perfect. They're a coupla goofballs. Obviously, she'd lost her mojo this year and was too exhausted to even try to make outfits for these two jokers. But, she did manage to come up with new threads for the "scary ghost."Sigh....Those were the good ol' days. We were free to roam the neighborhoods unsupervised with just a flashlight running door to door until our bags were full of candy. Our favorite was Mrs. James. She always gave us homemade popcorn balls. We never felt frightened or even expected someone would try to hurt us in any way.
Then, in the mid 70's there was some scare about people inserting razorblades into candy and my mom went berserk. She required us to dump all of our candy out for inspection before we could eat it and wouldn't let us go out for very long by ourselves. Mrs. James stopped giving out popcorn balls and Halloween started to loose its fun factor.
Leave it to the wackos to rain on everyone's parade.
7 comments:
You know, I was just thinking the same thing! About the razorblades... there was another big scare in the early 80s. We had a neighbor who would make these elaborate goodie bags filled with homemade treats, even caramel dipped apples! And where we grew up, not in a neighborhood, this was a big deal to us... and then it all stopped. And now, unpersonalized candies in the same packaging, same size, same, same, same. People don't even like goodie bags anymore because you can't see in...
Really does take the magic and fun out of things, doesn't it? Little creativity...
LOVE your costume photos!!! Priceless!!! Have fun with your family, and good luck at the game- same goes for Levi too!!!
Oh when Halloween was fun. Plastic mask that were flamable and it was a wonder we did not smother! Trick or treating ALL OVER TOWN with out any worries.
Those were simplier times weren't they?
i love your old photos, i am still chuckling! from sad clown to happy a year later. oh you sweet sweet thing!
I just LOVE your photos - we must be about the same age because I was a little one around when your photos were taken. I love the pair of devils!
Your mom sure was creative!!! Seems like she made holidays really special for you guys. Love your middle brother's dimple! Remember how those plastic masks would get all this condensed moisture inside them from breathing?? Toooooo funny.
This was so fun to read/look at! Brought back lots of memories! You guys look great, your mom did a great job! I remember the razor blade thingy too. Thanks for walk down memory lane this morning. Hope your son enjoys his last game!
Love, Esther
What fun photos! I also remember roaming the neighborhood completely unsupervised. My mom stayed home and made caramel apples, fudge and popcorn balls for us to have when we arrived home (just a little more sugar, ya know) and it was a great time!
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