In Part II of our F@%k It Friday Halloween series, I’d like you to share your best or most vivid Halloween memory.
I have fun memories of homemade costumes and parties. When I was younger, my Mom had more time to dedicate to Halloween. As I grew older, she had more kids and worked crazy hours to support our family. So here’s my favorite story.
My mom sent me out to trick-or-treat with my sister, Carolyn. She was three and I was thirteen — and I didn’t have a costume. My Mom put my hair in rollers, gave me a pair of pantyhose to wear, stuffed a pillow in my belly, dressed me in a muumuu, and handed me a pair of slippers. She told me that I was a pregnant housewife.
We lived on the northwest side of Chicago and people just assumed I was Carolyn’s unwed teen-age mother who was knocked up for a second time. Yes, we lived in that kind of classy neighborhood. I had to explain my costume to justify getting candy.
“No, I’m not a pregnant girl. Seriously, this is my costume. Can I have some candy, too?”
What’s your most vivid Halloween memory? What was your most outrageous costume?
Comments are open. It’s Friday. Waste some time and take a walk down memory lane with me!
{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
Picture it, Seattle, WA October 1975, a little blonde headed Kindergartener is very excited about her Hula Dancer costume, shell bikini top, grass skirt and a flower in her hair. She goes to school in her costume, it is a hit.
Later that evening she is devistated when her mother makes her wear jeans under her grass skirt and a long sleeved tee shirt under her shell bikini top because it is so cold outside.
Before the end of the evening she was also laden with a knit cap and a parka.
Damn Seattle fall weather!
Circa 1980 – while on summer vacation in August (in Arizona – why? It’s hot, but it’s cheap!) I saw a rubber rattlesnake at one of the odd attractions that we went to. I had to have it. So, what does my mom tell me? If you get it, it’s got to be part of your Halloween costume. (crafty of her to kill two birds with one $5 bill)
So, Halloween comes round and my mom wraps a sheet around my body and a pillow case around my head (secured in the front by March of Dimes pin). I draped my rubber snake over my shoulders, pulled out the recorder (you know those flute things you get in grade school music class). I was transformed into a Snake Charmer . . .
A neighborhood bully….we call him Greg….took my bag of candy and my older sister beat his ass! Amy K. is rad and always has been; just like Laurie R! Looking forward to brown baggin a 40 on the block with the kiddies!
I was a college co-ed. I dressed up as a KFC drumstick complete with sign, “Finger Lickin’ Good.” It was a success.
I remember having a favorite pair of PJs that were basically a pair of ‘oldtime’ underwear. They were the red, full-body style, and even had the flap in the back.
One year I used these to fashion a red dragon outfit for a neighbors party. The party was fun, but part way through I felt that it was getting cold in their house and not wanting to be rude, I said nothing.
Just image how embarrassed I was when I returned home and realized that the flap was OPEN.
I have never worn a red pair of underwear again!
I went trick or treating with my friends when we were 8 and we dressed up like the cast of the Wizzard of Oz. The girl who was Dorothy had a little toy Toto in a basket that she carried around. Sure enough, every couple of feet toy Toto would fly out of the basket and into the dirt. My dad was with us, and he would ask my friend everytime she dropped the toy dog, “How’s Toto?” and everytime she was say “He’s dead.”….it sounds morbid—but the way she said it the statement was funny coming from an 8 year old.
That 8 year old girl is now 25 and I’ll be damned—she has a little dog named Toto.
Freshman year in college and my friends and I are going to a halloween party. Didn’t have much in the costume department so I put on white sweatpants and and hooded white sweatshirt. One of my female friends told me that my Ghost idea was dorky so she took the string out of the hoodie collar and tied it around the back of the hood and told me that my costume was now a tampon. It was a hit at the party. Later in the evening some girls show up and one of them is wearing the same thing – except she stuck with the ghost idea. I untied my string and made a new friend. We lasted about 3 months – not too bad in college dating time measurement.
I remember when I was six or seven years old, my class was to put on a Halloween show in the auditorium– all the families, faculty, etc. to be there. I was to be a ghost– the sheet, holes for eyes, the whole nine. I was the first to go on– the whole audience was waiting with bated breath— and there was a wooden chair in the middle of the stage. I subsequently tripped over the sheet, tried to grab the chair– but it slipped on the slick stage floor– and the chair fell off the stage and just kept bouncing and twirling, bouncing and twirling towards the audience for what seemed like eternity!!! I could see the audience just watching this event– stunned– and as soon as the chair stopped– pregnant pause– then the whole audience just ERUPTS in laughter!! I wasn’t really embarrassed because I knew I was in the sheet– and not alot of the audience knew who I was.
8th grade in Suburban New Jersey circa 1995 when skateboarding became cool again. Great costume idea – a skateboarder. It gave me and my friends an excuse to ride our boards through the halls and on the newly waxed and glossy gymnasium floor. Thankfully no lawsuits ensued from the inevitable injuries.
My most memorable Halloween was as an adult. Who could forget the Halloween Blizzard of 1991? My boss closed our office at around 2pm so we could get home while the roads were still OK. At the time I lived in a very popular neighborhood for trick or treating. It was one of those neighborhoods where people from other parts of town would drive their kids to. Even in the middle of a snowstorm, we still had about 100 kids come that night. At least 80% of them were dressed as snowmobiliers, skiers, or hockey players. After the trick or treaters were gone, we got out our xc skis and skied around the streets of the neighborhood. By the time the blizzard was over, we got 31 inches of snow. Too much snow to drive to work but not too much to drive to the park for some more xc skiing. It was a blast.
It’s snowing right now. Maybe we’ll have another one. Whoo hoo!
I was the sea b—- from the Little Mermaid. I was eight and it was fab-u-lous! I loved Ursula and my mom sewed me eight little stuffed sausage like satin legs attached to a leotard and with little glitter-glue suction cups. A can of “White Rain” later and my hair was defying gravity, but the baby powder didn’t change my hair color well. I love Holloween.
PS. The husband brought home a better nasty dutch candy! Think hard licorice covered in finely ground pepper (like the pepper at your local fine greasy spoon establishment) and with more pepper in the center. huh….I don’t even know what to think…
Stacey-I like the swedish black licorcice with salt!
So I was the wee little kid. My mom was pretty broke growing up, so my costumes were always constructed from things we had lying around.
So one year mom pulls out an old pair of slacks and a beat up long sleeve shirt. She used her make up to somehow turn me into a weird hobo-clown. What tied the whole outfit together were to huge red balloons stuffed into the pants that made me look like I had a humongous ass!
It was tough to walk in that thing.
“Sexy” Cherie Berry – NC’s Commissioner of Labor. He face is in EVERY NC elevator. My original costume fell through at the last minute. I thought it might be funny and also poke fun at the “sexy plumber” and “sexy ghost” costumes. I mean, come on…sexy plumber? Lame.
A quick trip to Walmart produced some fishnet stockings, bright red lipstick, and a tight jacket. A few minutes in Photoshop and I had a NC Department of Labor badge and a clipboard of elevator safety rules. I was able to piece the rest together with items in my closet. The best part? People actually knew who I was without asking. I even ran into a couple people who worked for the Department of Labor. I hope the knew Cherie…and told her. That’s GOT to be flattering, right? Someone actually dresses as you for Halloween?
Most vivid Halloween memory? The ONLY time I ever went Trick or Treating. Sort of… We lived way out in the boondocks about a mile off the nearest country road. So no one ever came to our house Trick or Treating – and we didn’t have any neighbor’s houses to go to either. After years of begging, my mom finally agreed to take us and dressed my brother & I up as ghosts. You know the bed sheet with holes cut in them for eyes… Innovative – yes? And off we went down the dirt road to go find some houses to Trick. After a few minutes, someone splattered my mom’s 1972 blue Plymouth Fury (the Queen Mary of all vehicles). She promptly turned around and took us back home. I don’t think I even got any candy… Can you see now where life started to go wrong for me?
When I go back to my parents home to visit now, if we drive past the place where the infamous eggs were thrown, I always remember the trauma of that night. And I turn the lights off and leave my house for 3 hours every Halloween. If I didn’t get any candy growing up, I’m not giving out any either.
In college I went to a H party dressed up as a ski bum. Lame but it worked – Met a gal, went back to her place and we fell asleep on her couch with the radio playing. Now I didn’t sleep too well on a tiny couch fully dressed (yeah, bummer) with the radio playing. So all night I was listening to news updates of the Marine barracks bombing in Lebanon, starting with early reports, building all the way to the several hundred Americans who were killed in the attack. It was surreal.
Mine is also the 1991 Halloween Blizzard that Suz described (pretty much if you lived here at the time, you remember it). I was in 7th grade and I didn’t go trick or treating; I don’t remember what I did that night. But I do remember not having school the next day, which was pretty awesome.
This is so funny….My friends and I actually did the exact same thing when we were about 14!! At the last minute we decided to trick or treat, and that was the easiest costume to come up with!
@HRU I can relate to the weird fall weather screwing up many costume. Stupid CHicago.
@HRPuter Oh, that’s awesome — & lame.
@David Stay classy.
@Sue Ha & very tawdry.
@Thbull It’s good that this happened when you were younger — a youthful indiscretion.
@InkedHR I hope this Toto survives Halloween!
@Glen My husband was a Qtip in college. In retrospect, maybe he was a tampon. The pictures are deceiving.
@MattyMat This may explain your predilicition for fast women, drugs, and high risk enterprises — right??? Yes, I’m now psychoanalyzing everything to find the roots of your awesome moral decay.
@Dan You were a Sk8erboi/seeyal8rboi. Stupid Avril song will bein my head all day long.
@Suz Oh crap! Snow??
@Stacey I might vomit. This licorice craziness must stop. I am taking a stand.
@Ginger OMG, that is a geeky costume if I ever heard of one. LOVE IT. I’m going to make it my goal to ride an elevator in NC ASAP.
@Jennifer Oh, I see, this explains a lot. Would you like me to call in your prescription for Prozac to Walgreens or CVS?! (For the record, I was doused with a can of shaving cream in 1986 and my ex-stepfather encouraged the boys. I’ll call in my prozac prescription, too.)
@Barney I fall asleep every night listening to the BBC World. Depressing — and more depressing that I’ll now be thinking of your Halloween story!
@Tim No school but no candy. Sounds fun-neutral.
@UT The pregnant costume? OMG, I’ve never stopped being mistaken for being pregnant since that costume. Now I have to say, “No, I’m just full. Big dinner.”
I went to a Catholic school and my first communion was actually the day after Halloween. The nuns scared the students half to death by telling us that we should give up trick or treating that year as a sacrifice for our first communion. I was totally devastated because I had this wonderful mask that looked like a Vampirella type character. I also was highly impressionable and thought something horrible was going to happen to me if I did go trick or treating that night. My aunt, who was babysitting and was supposed to be the one to take me trick or treating (and who was also in a Catholic High School at the time) told me how bogus the nuns were and that I should just go trick or treating. She finally convinced me to go to a few house but the wimp I was got too scared and had too much Catholic guilt that I retreated home crying. People don’t realize how impressionable kids are at that age.
@Laurie You know what’s funny— you could be on to something there. I felt– at that exact moment— who gives a sh*t what other people think– I’m gonna do whatever the hell I want– and f*ck you if you don’t like it!! ((I’ve managed to stay out of prison though— heard some bad things go on in there– Yeesh—))
And I rarely get embarrassed either— hmmmm…. any more psychoanalysis you’ve pegged down?? no, wait… maybe I don’t want to hear anymore. lol
@HRHooligan If the nuns don’t scare you, the stations of the cross @ easter time always freaked me out. Ugh!
@Mattymatt I’m writing my PhD on you right now!
What’s the title?
“MattyMat: Wunderkind or Sociopathic Horses Patootie?”
“A study of the brains neuro-impulses having adverse effect, due to fast women, drugs, and high risk enterprises.”
I like it— I like it alot!
When I was 12, my Mom said I was too old to trick or treat and she refused to buy me a costume. She said if I could come up with my own costume I could go. I wore my costume from the Christmas play (I was a Christmas tree) and I got so much more candy that year than I ever did before. People smiled, people laughed, and they all gave me big handfulls of candy. Good thing I had taken a pillowcase to carry my candy in, as I could barely drag the thing home it was so full.