Halloween Costumes

I was running down the street as I had forgotten my wallet at the cash desk in the Halloween costume shop. I was hoping that I'd find it there untouched or behind the counter. How could I be so forgetful and with important things too. The other day I forgot to take my keys out of the car and the doors were unlocked. Anyone who tried could have gotten in and drove off. Thankfully I spotted my wallet on the cash desk and ran to it to check if everything was there and with great relief, I saw that it was all there. I didn't have a lot of money in there, so that was the least of my concerns. I was worried about losing my ID and my family pictures.

I'd been checking out various costumes for the grandkids at different shops like Spirit Halloween, Party City, thrift shops basically anywhere I thought I might get costumes for my three grandchildren: Lily, eleven years old; Thomas, seven years old; and Maggie, four years old. They all had pretty solid ideas on what they wanted to be for Halloween. While I was there, I also checked for ideas on what I might like to be as I also loved Halloween since I was a child. I had many good memories of Halloween that I enjoyed sharing with my grandkids.

I remember in elementary school going to the school's Halloween party and winning so many cakes on the cake walk that eventually I quit playing as I won at least six cakes that night. I didn't want them all; I just liked playing the game. I don't remember my costume for that year, but no doubt it was one of those old costumes made of plastic outfits and the little plastic masks that look somewhat creepy even nowadays when you see pictures of them.

Then there was the year my mom let me decorate my room for Halloween. It was pretty spooky looking for a kid's room. I loved that. I remember sitting in the dark just soaking up the black and orange. The walls were already painted black, and I just added pumpkins and other decorations; I put on the record album I had of the Monster Mash followed by other noises like creaking doors and women screaming. Yes, ever since I was a kid, Halloween was the life for me; apparently it still is.

For this year I could feel my Halloween costume forming in my mind but had not quite nailed it yet which is why I had gone costume hunting in the first place. When I was shopping, I had found some face masks in Spirit Halloween, so left with a skeleton jaw, a pumpkin mouth and a ghoulish sewn mouth and was very happy with my purchases. I have a few different ideas and sometimes having something to look at helped me decide what it would be for that year. There'd been years I had more than one costume because I couldn't decide which one I liked best. I'm glad my grandkids already knew what they wanted to be. They were much more decisive than I was. I only had to price and size check my grandkids' choices: Sam for my granddaughter, Lily; a superhero for my grandson, Thomas; and a cat, for my youngest granddaughter Maggie. The hardest part for me was picking the sizes because it always seemed to me that the costumes were really actually smaller than they said probably because they usually wore them over their clothing in our wintery climate.

I myself over the years have been many creatures such as Frankenstein, a skeleton and a favourite of mine was Mother from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. I've also been a killer clown, a wraith, a ghoul and many other nightmares. I always preferred to be something terrifying rather than something pretty, but that's not the same for everyone I know. When my oldest granddaughter who is now eleven was around three or four years old, I dressed her as a vampire. When she saw herself in the mirror, she started to cry. I had to scrap that plan and she ended up being a Disney princess which one I don't remember, but she was much happier with that choice than my idea. Only now has she started to venture into the more ghoulish of costumes.

This year Halloween would be the same in my mind even if the world was in a global pandemic. I had told my grandchildren if they didn't allow Halloween, we were still going to decorate our house, they were still going to have their costumes and we were still going to have a great time. We had our Halloween decorations up the last week in September, and we were watching horror or spooky movies since then as well, and I had them learning the moves to a skeleton dance I found on the internet. Yes our Halloween was going to be great - Covid-19 be damned!

Last Halloween I thought was a spooky one as well. My two oldest grandchildren however came out of the old neighbourhood never wanting to go back again, at least not on Halloween. They had gotten ready as usual after eating supper, and they also went out with their mom around the complex for some trick or treating before I took them to my old home - the same as I would do this year. My mom who is in her eighties still lives in her old haunted house. That house has been haunted since I lived in there, but it never bothered me. We had moved to that house when I was fourteen after my dad died from cancer. The house itself only now is close to 100 years old; so when we moved there, it wasn't so old but other families had lived there already.

We didn't know much about them other than the people my mom bought the house from back in the 1970s. I remember a time my brothers and my sister were playing hide and seek in the house; my sister was hiding under a table near a vent. She could see into the other room, but they couldn't see her. In the middle of playing this game, she jumped up and said that someone just said, "hello" to her in the vent. She said it was low, whispered voice. My brothers all came out of hiding, and it was not any of them. She quit playing hide and seek in the house after that. She was only seven at the time; so we all teased her, and said it was our dog, Skippy, although we all knew better.

Another time I heard the light switch turn on in my mom's sewing room; but when I went to look, everything was all dark as it had been before. That light switch made and still makes a very loud CLICK noise when it's turned on or off. There is also only one entrance into that room; so if it were a person who turned it on, we would have seen that person. There were many, many occurrences in that house; and these were not the spookiest, but maybe those can be saved for their own stories another time.

So let's get back to our previous Halloween. We had arrived at my mom's old house and said our hellos to my mom and my one brother who lived in the basement. The kids got treats from my brother and my mom, and we visited for a very short time as the kids wanted to get out to trick or treating.

As we left the house we noticed a man walking down the street with a giant head. It looked like it was from a commercial in a 1940 - 1950s ad where the man's hair was slicked back, and he had those smiles that they all had in those old drawn ads - cheesy. We saw a few trick or treaters out on the street so started out in the opposite direction of the man with the big head. The kids seemed to be scared of that man for some reason.

The trick or treating was fun, and we saw many houses with lights on of every colour - orange, purple, white and green. We came upon a house that was decorated with scarecrows. It looked very impressive; they had hay bales in the yard and at least six scarecrows standing in the yard. In the dark they all looked like inanimate objects. I told the kids to go up and trick or treat, and so they headed up the pathway to the door when all of a sudden, one of the scarecrows by the door started to move towards them; they all screamed and ran back to the gateway terrified. I laughed so hard, and thought that was a good one. They never did go back to get any treats from that house.

We continued on and saw all the wonderful houses decorated with pumpkins, skeletons, witches, ghosts and everything else that goes bump in the night. There were houses that had videos showing against their houses which is something that I never saw as a trick or treater. We kept on going around till around 8 15 pm when we decided to head back to my mom's house to pack up and go back home. Lo and behold on our way back, we saw the man with the big head coming down the road. My grandchildren all panicked, and said they wanted to go right away and in the other direction. I think this man could hear them and their terror, so he followed us much to my grandchildren's horror, but isn't that what Halloween is about.

This year as we are in the week of Halloween, I can feel the electricity in the house waiting for the big day. As I reminisce I think a big part of the costumes for me is I feel like I am someone or something else and can be wholeheartedly. I guess in ancient times that's what the idea was so that evil spirits would not know who you were as it's the night the veil is thinnest to the other side. I've always known this, so still favour the horrifying costumes and probably will till I'm on the other side of the veil. Happy Halloween and watch out for things that go bump in the night!