So today, I want to discuss Halloween costumes. And true to my original promise of my old journals, this entry is going to probably sift through some fond old memories or zebra costumes, fairy costumes, and sky dancer dolls that helped create a lasting friendship.
I guess when you're a kid, Halloween costumes are a big deal because you ARE someone else for that day. I had a horse thing. So any animal that resembled one was fair game. When I was 4, that was a zebra. My mom got really into it. She bought fabric and a pattern from JoAnne's and set down at her old sewing machine to make me the best damn zebra on the planet. We had a stuffed head too. Although I'm not one hundred percent sure how she made that/bought it. Only problem, the head sat on top of my head and she had to walk around me the entire night HOLDING it upright. And it was hot. And itchy. Can you see where this is going? A whining 4-year-old with a grouchier parent chasing after them, holding a cumbersome zebra head (that was almost true to size if I do recall) more like a leash than a prop. Yup. That costume was never re-gifted to another fortunate soul.
Then we have the fairy costume. The BEAUTIFUL fairy costume that Lisa once again slaved over her sewing machine to make. Years later she overheard me describing it as having cheap fabric or how it was an awful color. Can we just discuss the glare and retort I received in about 0.2 seconds? It really was a nice costume. I must have remembered it wrong. I have a great picture somewhere of me at Nonna's table with a big cheesy grin on my face and a cookie in my hand.
A few years previous I was Jack Sparrow. I had some eye liner issues considering my mass of black gunk far surpassed even Johnny Depp's masterpiece of eye art. I think it was halfway down my cheeks by the night's end. But that costume was SPOT ON. Props to my creativity with that one.
Then there were countless wizard, M&M, jungle girl, and flapper costumes. I am repeating my Twister costume. Tried to be Rosy the Robot from the Jetsons (too expensive), and was even Tom Cruise last year.
But I also need to talk about my Halloween partner in crime. My neighbor in the blue house next door, Emily. We were best friends from the moment I walked through the little archway of trees and saw her playing with her SkyDancer. I was crazy for those things. They were cheap plastic with almost grotesquely perfect Barbie faces and crummy foam wings. And they had rather large chests for such dainty dolls that were supposed to "float" through the air. So you'd pull their little string/pullstart/whatever that spun them in a circle of death and they'd launch into the air and most always crash to the dirt, tree stump, driveway with a wing crunched up underneath them. They made better knickknacks to look at it in an 8-year-old's room rather than a serious toy to play with. And if it was muddy out? Forgettaboutit. So anyways, I walked over and played SkyDancers with Emily all day. Boom! Instant friendship. One silly day we sat and watched our neighbor's house across the street because she babysat us and let slip that she knew a friend, who knew a friend, who knew a friend's cousin, that knew Leonardo DiCaprio. So in our minds, that meant he was DEFINITELY gonna show up in a limo and instantly want to spend allllll day with two 8-year-olds. Chyea. Dreaming big on that one. Halloween also came EVERYDAY for us. We constantly played dress up in my mom's old clothes and dresses. One dress was a perfectly awful pregnancy dress with all buttons down the front and dragged across the floor. Whoever was the villain wore this beautiful masterpiece of ugly clothing. Seriously. It was a work of art making this thing as atrocious as it was. And then we would act. These intricate stories of knights or Batman or Backstreet Boys groupies. I don't remember any exact stories, just that we would hide under beds or run around the yard and our surroundings were so much more than our drab neighborhood.This ceased as we got older, obviously. Instead we ended up sitting on the grass with my old radio, listening to KC101 all day in the shade. Or in the winter, building snow forts and chasing our brothers through the yard. Then we moved on to watching movies instead of acting them out. Emily eventually moved away but we caught up last winter. Sometimes it hurts to look back on memories because no matter what you do, you can't bring them back. Because I'd give anything to have a carefree snow day with Em, playing dress up and making hot chocolate.
What made me think of this was a fairy commercial on TV the other day. It made me think of all of this - Halloween. SkyDancers. Emily. Dressing up.
As a little kid, dressing as someone or something else is so much more enticing. You escape being a little kid. Now, Halloween is more of a laugh rather than something to be taken seriously. I miss Emily. And Halloween as a kid. I don't even know where my SkyDancers are. Probably the trash. But the nice part is having these memories written down. Even though my 1st grade journal has a terrible hand drawn picture of a SkyDancer and one sentence saying "Tuday I Played with Emly." I was a champ speller when I was 7 or 8. hahaha.
My advice - GO DRESS UP AND BE MERRY!!!! Halloween is a pure excuse to act like a kid and GET AWAY WITH IT.
:)
Happy Howloween!
