My mother was a gifted seamstress and liked to make costumes. After all she went to Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and studied costume design. She could make her own patterns and everything. I wish I had pictures of the costumes she made for my sister and me.
I think it all started with playing dress-up at Charlotte's. She'd let me dig through her closet and pull out clothes from late twenties and early thirties. She even let me wear her little tiara. What a princess! It doesn't matter that the gloves and shoes are too big!
In the islands Halloween isn't the only time to get into costume; there's Carnival on St. Thomas, and the 4th of July on St. John. Here I am one 4th as some kind of Hawaiian chick wrestling with Gene, my sister's best friend.
Back in 1969 I was in two Carnival parades, back to back, The Children's Parade on Friday and the Adult's Parade on Saturday. It was a crazy thing to do. Totally exhausting, particularly since I walked both days.
I think my school's floop (a combination of troop and float) was a tribute to literary characters. You can't see much... but that's me, as Snoopy, helping to carry a banner. I'm the one on the left. The banner reads "Happiness is an Elected Governor," celebrating our first elected governor.
The next day I was in the Adult's Parade. That year there was a song called "Mah Na Mah Na," a one hit wonder that was very popular. Even Red Skelton used it on his show. He and others dressed up as a moon creatures and played the tune on kazoos. That lead to me being in the Carnival troop from St. John. We were moon creatures dressed up in painted foam costumes playing kazoos. (Boy was it hot in that foam!)
The sign reads, " Legalize Extra-Orbital Activities."
Those round spots were price stickers. I had a spotted sun burn.
And here for your entertainment is a humorous rendition of "Mah Na Mah Na" done by The Muppets. Don't blame me if the tune gets stuck in your head.
Other memorable costumes include:
A mermaid with a full tail
Raggedy Ann complete with red yarn wig
A sailor on Columbus's ship
A witch (every girl has to be a witch at least once in her life)
Bugs Bunny, I made a paper mache carrot that I carried in a pistol holster strapped to my hip. My best friend, a head shorter than me, went as Yosemite Sam
A flapper
An ancient hippy (a ghost wearing love beads, medallion, peace and anti-war buttons)
A bag lady (I had every type of bag I could find pinned and/or taped to my clothes)
Miss Ellaneous, I wore a sash and a little crown and had paper clips, safety pins, pencils, pens, post-it notes, scissors, rulers etc. pinned to my person
A gypsy
I know there are more, but I that's all I can remember at the moment.
What about you, got a favorite costume memory? Happy Halloween.
I'm a witch every day, never mind once a year. Love the first pic! Gor-ge-ous!! I remember hand made Halloween costumes when I was a kid. Can't remember what I was, and no pics either, but I do remember my mother made them all.
ReplyDeleteThanks for my card, it was beautiful!
I remember that song! :) My mom did a great job with my costumes, too. One year I absolutely insisted on being a bat and she obligingly came through, even inserting bamboo into the wings so they'd stick out like a real bat's. I love Halloween.
ReplyDeleteMy sister is talented like your mom -- she made the most pretty costrumes for her children. I do cardboard boxes and tape! They outgrew that quickly.
ReplyDeleteHey, send me an email about how you did your website on blogger, will you? I need to update my website and thinking of doing it on blogger but haven't seen any templates where you can have multiple pages. Thankee Bish.
That would have been great to have such a talented mom. My costumes were always hand made and last minute. One year i went as Yentil.
ReplyDeleteNow I have that song stuck in my head. The Muppet's version, of course.
ReplyDeleteAnd from looking at your profile photo, I'm surprised you were even alive in 1969.
wow! You're mom . . . What talent!
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures! Looks like a blast.
wow! Rock on, girl. You are some kind of superstar dresser upper! :D And Yosemite Sam! I was just talking about him... ;p
ReplyDeleteHappy Halloween!
What a variety of costumes!
ReplyDeleteAnd a spotted sunburn!!! Yow!
My husband and I dressed as twin lobsters one year with cardboard claws we could slip our hands in and out of (so we could also sip beer!)
ReplyDeleteWe didn't have halloween costumes in England. No one went trick or treating back then. But my mom did make me an amazing Little Bo Beep costume one year. Like your mom, she created the pattern herself.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite costume memories are of my own kids - my son as the Incredible Hulk, my daughter as Winnie the Pooh's honey pot (I was Pooh). So many.
ReplyDeleteHappy Halloween!
Happy Halloween, Bish! Those are some great costumes. It's a shame you don't have pics of all of them. Now, those sun burn spots are too cool! Haha!
ReplyDeleteI finally got my computer back today and am so sorry I missed out on your blog party. The hard drive crashing was just the tip of the ice berg of things that went wrong in the past two weeks. "When it rains, it pours," it's so true. NaNo starts in five minutes. Are you participating? This is my first time. I'm not starting in five minutes. Need some sleep first!
Wow, learning about your mom continues to amaze me! It does sound like an exhausting two days...but fun too. I remember feeling overscheduled during my teen years at times but most of the time it was because everything I signed up to do seemed like it would be a lot of fun --- and it usually was! (I skipped the muppets...I need a tune-free head at the moment)
ReplyDelete:)
Miss Ellaneous and the bag lady were inspired ideas :-)
ReplyDeleteI suspect I have been a witch more than once in my life ... ;-)
Dressing up can be fun. And those fabulous pictures show you were having lots of fun. I could have used your inspiration and costume ideas when I was trying to figure out what to dress up as this past weekend (for a Halloween party). Ah, well.
ReplyDeleteI love these personal glimpses.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to listen to that song--I can already hear it playing in my head.
ReplyDeleteI used to love Halloween and dressing up. When I was 11--in 1962--my mother was in the hospital at Halloween giving birth to my youngest brother. My sister and I were on our own to come up with costumes. I fabricated a pirate costume and my sister dressed as a ballerina using on of her old dance recital costumes. I think we ended up looking pretty darn good.
Lee
A Faraway View