Ah, Halloween–a time that tries the souls of Martha Stewart wannabes such as myself. This is the one time I ignore my inner couch potato and just go for it.
When our children were small we moved to South America; a land of continuous warm weather interrupted only by short bursts of rain. We held Thanksgiving outside and the whole neighborhood of company personnel and their families partook of a shared repast. The rain only added moisture to the turkey if we made the mistake of asking a natural born citizen to bake one. We also learned to tell them we were eating at noon if we wanted to eat by midnight. They were a fun-loving bunch.
But I digress.
What's that got to do with Halloween, you ask? Nothing. I just get a little maudlin every now and then. Anyway, we lived in South America for approximately eight years. Although it was nearly paradise, there were no big box stores, no dollar stores, and, more importantly, no patterns. And no television, no computers, no cell phones, no internet. Did I say it was paradise? Anyhoo, I had to get creative in crafting Halloween costumes for the kiddos.
I'm semi-competent when it comes to sewing but how in the heck is someone like myself expected to make a costume without a pattern? Even if I'd had one, it probably wouldn't have resembled the picture anyway.
I remember one year our daughter wanted to be a genie so I found some gauzy fabric and some silky fabric, laid her down on the floor, traced around her body and voila, with the help of a borrowed sewing machine, I managed to make her a genie costume. It's a good thing it was meant to be loose and billowy.
He-man was really popular among grade school boys that year so He-man it had to be. I found some brown felt and made boots and a vest, added a few other pieces of clothing and let me tell you, he made a pretty good Heman.
Other costumes I made our son over the years were Superman, a life-size Pac-Man made from yellow cardboard and lots and lots of staples while David kept telling me it'd never work (it did), and a baseball player.
Our daughter was also a hot dog, and a witch complete with green hair. I achieved this by using a dandruff shampoo that turns blond hair green if you don't rinse it out. No, it wasn't mine.
Her birthday is just a few weeks from Halloween and piñatas are traditional in South America. One year I bought her one that looked like a giant basket of flowers. She refused to let anyone break it so for Halloween that year I cut a head and arm holes and she wore it to trickor-treat. She'd squat down inside and pop out when someone answered the door.
Sooner or later, we had to move back to Oklahoma and what do you think the kids wanted for their Halloween costumes? One of those cheesy plastic costumes with masks with little elastic straps that snap the first time you put it on, that's what they wanted. To hear them tell it they were two poor children who had been deprived of cheap plastic costumes during their formative years.
But despite all the hassle here are a few reasons I still love Halloween:
It's a time when we adults can dress like homeless people who don't own a mirror or a comb and blend in with the other shoppers at the big box stores.
It gives me an excuse to buy the equivalent of a boxcar full of candy and nobody would dare ask me to explain why I'm purchasing a boxcar full of candy.
I can eat candy all day long without anyone judging me. After all, October through December is the season to stuff our faces with sweets.
I can decorate the house with fake spiders, mostly fake spider webs, jack o'lanterns and skeletons. I can also claim the dust lightly coating everything is part of the decor.
I can eat candy all day long without anyone being the wiser.
I love seeing all the children who come to the door dressed in the cutest costumes, begging for candy like miniature homeless people. I lost count last year of all the superheroes, mermaids, witches and dinosaurs that came to our door.
We can commandeer their bags of candy which David and I (mostly I) promptly ransack...I mean, inspect for any signs of 'bad' candy.
I don't care if a threemonth sugar high will keep me awake until New Year's Eve. Who needs sleep anyway?
If you don't hear from me for the next couple of months it's because I'll be on a sugar high.
Happy Halloween, y'all!