Does anyone remember those old 50's and 60's Collegeville and Cooper brand Halloween costumes? You know the ones that came in a cardboard box and included a plastic mask with painted-on hair, hats and smiles. The costume itself was all-in-one, tie-on and flame proof! My brother once tested that claim with a match; the costume edge didn’t flame at all, it just melted. The top and bottom of the costume were permanently attached to each other and all the details printed on the fabric like jewelry, glasses and mustaches.
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| My witch suit 195 |
Most of them depicted cartoon characters or movie heroes or princesses. We loved those things! You couldn’t really breathe through the oval mouth hole, it made made you sound like Darth Vader, of course we didn't know who Darth Vader was then. Your face got sweaty behind those masks and your vision was severely constricted by those teensy, weensy eye holes.
We always carried a big hollow, plastic jack-o-lantern with a black handle for all our loot and a flash light for safety. The flashlight was also good for shining in your siblings eyes and destroying what little night vision they had through the mask’s creepy eye-holes.
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| Kate the Witch, 2009 |
Next Halloween you had to wear a hand-me-down costume unless you pitched a fit about being a princess because you were a boy. The inside of the hand-me-down mask might smell vaguely like candy corn and chili and the edge of the costume might be ripped or melted a little. Maw haa haa… I was the oldest kid, so it was one of my old costumes that got handed down to my sibs.
Costumes have come a long way from the early the 50s. What has your creative mind come up with for Halloween this year?
2 comments:
I think about those kind of costumes all the time when I see the costumes my sisters' kids wear. I remember wearing them until I was in 2nd grade,I got a really cool skeleton costume. Then everyone decided to make their own costumes, and I cried because I didn't want to wear the stupid skeleton. My mom let me go as a gypsy fortune teller.
Funny thing, that's exactly what I'm wearing this year.
Amazing how we tend toward the same kinds of get-ups that we liked as kids. I've always leaned towards being a witch. We started going to second-hand places for costumes then actually made our own at about 13 years old.
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