Scary
Coming up with a Halloween costume
At Halloween, the scariest thing is having to come up with a costume. Not just any costume, but a really good costume that’ll show everyone how creative and clever you are. Talk about pressure.
We all know people for whom such a task is easy. They have so many ideas that they have trouble picking just one. We don’t like those people. (Actually, we do, because they always have the best costumes, and we love a great costume. We just don’t like how easy it is for them. Or maybe it isn’t easy, it just seems that way.)
Some slough off peer pressure. A friend’s son was a Halloween iconoclast from a very early age. The rest of the kids would be dressed up as dinosaurs or Power Rangers or whatever was their latest obsession. Nicolai would be Mr. Nobody, wearing his ordinary clothes and carrying a paper bag to collect candy—not because he liked it, but because his siblings wanted his share. (I get that. Especially Reese’s.) It drove his mother nuts.
Halloween brings joy to the crafty and creative. It’s an excuse to let their imagination run free, to bring down that box of supplies from the attic, or hit up the local thrift store. They hot-glue into existence the cleverest ideas from humble materials. And we’re grateful they do.
Because we’re the folks whose attic box delivers the gorilla mask, whose rubber has stiffened unpleasantly with age, and the tatty blond wig. Yup, King Kong and Faye Ray.
Again.
Turning the tables, what’s your favorite creative costume? Or the go-to standby from the box in the attic??
I grew up in the shadow of creative greatness. *My* poor kid wore the same skunk costume year after year (black hooded sweatshirt w/ears and white stripe on the back). Just found the photo of the costume my mom made when she was about the same age as me (and had 3 kids): she, my dad, and 2 friends in homemade Martian costumes + an immense silver spaceship. They took 1st prize at the Navy officer's club that year (and I think that's the year my dad got promoted. A connection...? )
I am with you on those creative Halloween people. I think the emotion is jealousy. I have a cousin Susan who has a special Halloween creative energy, as does my daughter. Every year, great, creative costumes. What’s with that? I had one great costume, and that was when I was in college living in a terrific, enormous Boston apartment, with four roomates. Despite our cleanliness we had cockroaches. So we when we threw a Halloween party, my husband (then boyfriend) and I dressed up as a cockroach (me) and a can of raid (him.). We had an artist friend do the Raid can, so it was very realistic, and I wore a brown leaotard with black feelers and antenna. After that, its been pretty much downhill.