Halloween Past

The back of this picture says that it was taken in 1978. Really? 1978?

I guess it makes sense. The pepper tree replaced a couple of liquid amber trees in the front yard when I was in 2nd grade, so yeah, that's about right. It just seemed like we were younger. I'll confess, I have no idea how old kids are by looking at them. Tell me your little boy's twelve, but he's really seven? I won't know the difference. I wouldn't have guessed that my brother, hereafter known as The Engineer, was ten years old in this picture.

We didn't have a whole lot of money when we were growing up. My parents did a fantastic job of hiding this from us. We always thought that they were holding back on buying us new toys or fancy costumes because they were trying to make us appreciate what we already had, or be more creative. It worked. By the time I was eight, when this picture was taken, I wouldn't have even thought about getting a costume at the store. You make your costume out of what you have around. That's just how it was done.

So I give you these costumes -- The Engineer becomes a vampire for the price of false teeth, a cape my mom probably made, and some face paint. I become a hobo clown with a thrift store blazer and tie, some fabric remnants, a cheap hat and a plastic flower. I won't count face paint toward the total cost, because obviously The Engineer and I shared it. I'm also not counting the red paint, because that was an old tube of my mom's lipstick.

I remember loving this costume, and having a grand time trick-or-treating that year. I don't remember being sorry that I didn't get the princess costume from the store.

Bravo, Mom. Bravo.

Oh, yeah. Note that the bowler doesn't go any further down on my head than that. My voluminous hair, and yes it's my own hair and not a clown wig, held the hat in place. Even as a child? Great big head.