I've been thinking about Halloweens of the past on this day after Halloween. I don’t remember much of my own childhood Halloweens, I’m sure my parents saw that I had my favorite costumes and took me out, there’s just nothing memorable that I can recall. I do have some good memories of Halloween, just not from my youth. This particular walk down memory lane is kind of long so I'm using the "extended entry" function for the rest...
There was the first Halloween after I got married in September of ’79. I had moved down from Bakersfield that spring and my fiancée and I had bought a house in North Redondo Beach that summer before we got married . It was a little two bedroom place, almost a cottage, with a nice yard and an elementary school across the street. Boy did we have to fix it up…the kitchen for example had black cabinets and some weird sapling print wallpaper in black, brown and metallic bronze above a cheap dark wood paneling wainscoting. The floors were covered in filthy and mostly threadbare orange and yellow shag carpeting. When the realtor showed us the place the people who were living there had a Buddhist shrine in the living room, but they took it with them. They didn’t take the pile of old clothes with them from the master bedroom closet…apparently someone there was very, very large and had really bad taste. Aside from that, it was well inland from the beach (thus the North Redondo designation) and very middle class. As Halloween drew near I assumed there would be a lot of kids but didn't know for sure what kind of turn out we'd have. I bought tons of candy. I might have dressed up, I don’t remember that detail.
It must have been a Saturday Halloween because it was still daylight out and I was home instead of fighting the L.A. commute on the 405. I was putting the candy bowl near the door when I saw a young man and a small child coming down the sidewalk. The father stopped about 5 feet back and his tiny son came the rest of the way. So, I was at the door, candy bowl in hand, waiting for this darling to come get his candy.
He couldn't have been more than 4 and may have been younger. He held out his little bag silently. I put some candy in the bag and asked "what are you?" He was dressed in what I believed was a lovingly hand made outfit which had been covered in tinfoil and otherwise decorated; he could have been a mini-tin man. He looked back at his dad who smiled and nodded (kid already knew he wasn't allowed to talk to strangers) and said "I'm a ro-bert.” This was back in 1979 and I still remember that child as the cutest trick-or-treater ever...except of course for my own children!
My first child was born in September of '85 so that Halloween he was just a bit over one month old. We were living in Canyon Country (a bedroom community just outside of L.A’s San Fernando Valley now known as Santa Clarita.) We lived in a relatively new development full of young families. My son was born just one month after we moved into our new home and again we were new to the neighborhood. I had stocked up on candy as well as dressed up for the night. I had done my face in ghoulish white and black makeup and was wearing an floor length long-sleeved black dress with a cowl over my head all of which presented a pretty frightful picture to the small children, some of whom weren’t going to leave their mom’s or dad’s sides and come close to me even if I was holding a tiny baby and had a full bag of candy next to me. Of course that could have been because they were confused as to my intentions towards the baby I was holding. I could almost hear their thoughts: would I be eating it? Were they next?
The next year my son was 13 months old and had been walking for some time by Halloween. I decided to make his costume myself. Since I didn’t want him in a mask, so I was going do something I could finish with makeup. I decided to make him a panda bear. His room was decorated in panda bears and he seemed to like them, so why not? I put a white flannel “tummy” on a black sweatshirt and he wore that over black sweatpants. I made up his face in white base with a blackened nose and black circles around the eyes. I made a cap with ears for his head. First stop was his daddy’s office. Daddy is a lawyer. We walked around and chatted with a few of his colleagues many of whom had warped, cynical and sarcastic senses of humor. One of them asked me why I had dressed my son up as a dead Amish child. I guess I can see the resemblance when I look at the pictures. Of course time has gone by and my son’s taste in costumes has, umm, evolved. Last year he wore a totally authentic and really well made “Alex” costume – Alex from Clockwork Orange, eyeball cufflinks and all.
My daughter has had the usual assortment of little girl costumes, Disney princesses, etc. It’s lately as a teen that her costumes have been more interesting. She’s not one to dress up all ruffled and frilled, she mostly wears jeans and tee shirts. One year we get a long pink dress and I sewed white fake fur on the collar and hem; she carried a scepter and wore a tiara, my daughter the princess. This was the cause of much hilarity amongst her high school friends; apparently she is the last girl on earth to be imagined as a princess. Last year we put together the Can-can outfit, she was very fond of the film Moulin Rouge. The corset was easy but the skirt was challenging. And the shoes...goodness were they just awful with the clear acrylic platform and heel...it certainly turned looked otherwise authentic. This year’s was chronicled in my last blog.
Well, one of these days I will dress up for Halloween again myself…and someday (although I hope way ahead in the future) I hope to have grandchildren’s Halloween costumes to admire. Its too much of a fun holiday to keep missing out!