Doug: Karen and I thought it would be fun to give our readers a day to sound off on their favorite costumes of Halloweens gone by. We're specifically looking for some thoughts on your get-ups, scary or otherwise, in the Bronze Age. Did you usually go in one of the store-bought outfits, sold in those huge window boxes? Or did you tend to side with the homemade costumes and dress as a pirate or hobo? What was your best trick-or-treat memory, and do you have a bad one? Do you dress up as an adult to hand out treats to the little ghouls and goblins in your neighborhood?Doug: And by the way, if you've yet to click on our sidebar link to the Lair of the Dork Horde and their 31 days of Halloween costumes, you're missing out. There are some great memories located within, as well as a heaping helping of education. Daily I find a character-based costume that I never knew existed -- some due to the age of it, others due to the fact that I was just ignorant of said character's role in pop culture at all! So pay 'em a click.
9 comments:
Ah! You guys are too kind to post such a prominent and glorious link to my blog! Thanks so much! And I'm glad you're enjoying the plethora of pilfered images I've been posting. Happy Halloween!
And to answer your above questions about Halloween costumes;
My favorite costume of my youth, was my store bought Darth Vader get-up, and my favorite one from my adult life was my Count Chocula costume from a few years ago. That one was built from scratch.
As a kid, I grew up in a small town and the store bought boxed costumes were almost expected. In fact, I remember some of us sort of snickering at kids in home made costumes. I had no idea that we were actually being unoriginal.
My favorite Halloween memory revolves around the fact that in my small hometown, we would hold trick or treating on Halloween night, but would always have a huge bonfire and Halloween festival on the Saturday night before Halloween, which pretty much meant that every year, you had to have two costumes! The whole town would show up, dressed in costumes (for some reason, the bonfire costumes were always expected to be scarier, you saved your big bird costume or whatever for trick or treating), go on a hay ride, go through the haunted house (the adjacent rec hall) and drink lots of cider. It was always epic.
I don't remember a lot of my Halloween costumes, unfortunately. I always wanted a store bought costume (like all the cool kids had) but when I was younger, my mom insisted on making me costumes. I remember a rather embarrassing bunny rabbit costume, which we unfortunately have pictures of. In retrospect, she must have put a LOT of work into that. I also remember a homemade robot costume, with cardboard boxes covered in aluminum foil.
When I got older, I was finally able to get store bought costumes, and Spider-Man and Darth Vader come to mind.
By the way, I would like to start a national petition to move Halloween to the last Saturday in October. It really stinks having it on a Wednesday night!
Love those vintage costumes, Reis, great collection of photos.
I suspect most of us were like dbutler.. I recall having some store-bought outfit very early in life, but for life of me, cannot remember what it was.
Coolest outfit I wanted when young around '68 was this kid had an Aquaman mask/suit on one day at Kindergarten.
Did plan on bar-hopping with my 20something niece and nephew perhaps as the Green Hornet, but wanted the vintage outfit, not the recent movie outfit..
My niece has cosplayed as a Trek science yeoman (Next Gen) and my nephew's gone out as both Batman and Spidey in the past.
I always had trouble with masks because of my glasses...the mask never fit over them properly and if I took them off, I couldn't see. I did try a few when I was a kid...Spider-Man, Stormtrooper, and a weird silver/blue/red robot mask which was some obscure character that I've forgotten. I think the Stormtrooper and robot masks are still in my dad's basement someplace!
Mike W.
I remember going as Superman and Shazam, home-made costumes that were pretty easy--just had to make the logo and cape, and add the right color shirt, etc. One year I was Zorro, and I can't even remember the costume, but my "sword" was a tv antennae that had broken off earlier. Not a bad sword, as it could be carried easily, then extended out for battle!
As a little kid, yes I was a ghost. I remember that I used a pillow case to collect candy. Some houses made you sing to collect your booty, but not many. Others had the guy dressed up as a scarecrow or whatever, staying perfectly still on the front porch or lawn till the kids came close enough, then jumping up with a yell to scare us!
Reis, I visited your blog and right off the bat, a Jimmy Osmond costume! That is scary! ; )
What a great holiday! Wish I could remember more of them. One that does stand out was Halloween 1971. Some friends and I were roaming the neighborhood, bags in hand. We went up to one house , where we chorused "trick or treat". A female voice called from the screened door for us to come in. We entered, to find ourselves in the middle of a roomful of hippies! They commented on our cuteness, and treated us with political tracts! We stumbled out of the incense-laced interior, wishing they had offered Tootsie Pops instead...
My mom used to work with a neighbor who made these paper mache heads and costumes similar to the kind you could see a sports team's mascot wear, so I got one of those for Halloween a couple of times when I was a kid. The only one I remember is Elmer Fudd. I remember I could barely see out of the thing and it was really hot to wear, but I was voted best costume at school. I remember stumbling along classroom to classroom wearing that thing carrying a plastic toy gun as it was of course "wabbit season".
As an adult, I haven't dressed up much. At the end of the Bronze Age I was a teen/early 20's with long hair and I remember dressing as Angus Young the guitar player from AC/DC - that was a hit with the "headbangers" at the party I was at.
Now I just started taking my boy out trick-r-treating and I've been thinking that if he ever dresses as Batman, it'd be funny to dress as his Robin. Not this year though - this year he's The Flash so I couldn't think of anyone to match up with him. He already told me next year he wants to be Superman, so I'm thinking I might try being his Jimmy Olsen. I just don't think I could pull off Lois Lane, although I must admit that even though I'm a big, rugged guy, I am very tempted to try.
Mike- your son is fortunate to have such a faithful sidekick! And by all means; give Lois a shot. A couple years ago my wife and I went to a Halloween party; she was Homer Simpson and I was Marge. I got best costume...
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