Halloween Past & Present
"I heard that the big kids soaped the windows on Halloween & all we had was a box of Tide & I couldn't reach the windows anyway, so I poured a big pile of it on the neighbor's doorstep & I never figured out how my mom knew it was me until we had kids" - Brian Andreas (Story People)
Halloween is perhaps my favorite holiday. I will gladly celebrate any holiday that involves free candy and costumes.
My best pal, Nancy, whom I met in the 4th grade, still hosts an annual Halloween costume party. She's the mom of two beautiful and imaginative children. She's also a librarian so if you ever visit this library, run in and give her a hug from me...and tell her that she rocks!
Rewind 34 years...above is a photo of Nancy and me at around 9 or 10 years of age donning our most awesome dragon costume that we made ourselves with boxes and bits that we recovered from the trash platform of an old department store. It took the two of us to operate the dragon...one in the front and one in the back. We pulled a string inside the beast to open and close it's mouth. The treat giver fed our goodies to the dragon and it would drop into a bag within. As you can see we ran out of green paint.
Nancy's brother Danny (right) made an existential statement about capitalism...I can still picture him painting his multi-directional-box-on-a-box while the Zappa tunes wailed from behind his bedroom door. Her sister Linda and friend Laura (left) dressed as a pack of gum. They had to take tiny steps in their slim carton and had a hard time navigating all those front stoops. They tipped over several times, unable to recover like a toppled turtle and we had to de-dragonize ourselves to hoist them back upright again.
This year we will be a lion tribe and I will try my hand at face painting. I thrifted an ultra-soft lion costume for Satch.
(Last year Satch was a cow-boy)
There is an old expression that goes something like this... the more things change, the more they stay the same. Well Nancy, if you're reading this, we may be 44 years old, but we still know how to celebrate Halloween and I still wield my Polaroid camera like it's nobody's business.
Here's to you, dear friend, on this day I always think of you....Happy Halloween! (video below)
*For those of you who asked, the inspiration for my pumpkins came from
this book and this book respectively.
Halloween is perhaps my favorite holiday. I will gladly celebrate any holiday that involves free candy and costumes.
My best pal, Nancy, whom I met in the 4th grade, still hosts an annual Halloween costume party. She's the mom of two beautiful and imaginative children. She's also a librarian so if you ever visit this library, run in and give her a hug from me...and tell her that she rocks!
Rewind 34 years...above is a photo of Nancy and me at around 9 or 10 years of age donning our most awesome dragon costume that we made ourselves with boxes and bits that we recovered from the trash platform of an old department store. It took the two of us to operate the dragon...one in the front and one in the back. We pulled a string inside the beast to open and close it's mouth. The treat giver fed our goodies to the dragon and it would drop into a bag within. As you can see we ran out of green paint.
Nancy's brother Danny (right) made an existential statement about capitalism...I can still picture him painting his multi-directional-box-on-a-box while the Zappa tunes wailed from behind his bedroom door. Her sister Linda and friend Laura (left) dressed as a pack of gum. They had to take tiny steps in their slim carton and had a hard time navigating all those front stoops. They tipped over several times, unable to recover like a toppled turtle and we had to de-dragonize ourselves to hoist them back upright again.
This year we will be a lion tribe and I will try my hand at face painting. I thrifted an ultra-soft lion costume for Satch.
(Last year Satch was a cow-boy)
There is an old expression that goes something like this... the more things change, the more they stay the same. Well Nancy, if you're reading this, we may be 44 years old, but we still know how to celebrate Halloween and I still wield my Polaroid camera like it's nobody's business.
Here's to you, dear friend, on this day I always think of you....Happy Halloween! (video below)
*For those of you who asked, the inspiration for my pumpkins came from
this book and this book respectively.
Labels: celebration, samhain
4 Comments:
As your pumpkins inspired mine.
Have a spooky, fun Halloween with lots of good candy and none of the gross kind.
i had such fun reading this post!
and the picture? priceless!
here's to good memories and happy halloweens!
I love that old photo!! home-made costuming at it's finest. And sharing a costume with your best pal must be friendship at it's finest.
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