Memories of Homemade Halloween Costumes

Before I could make my own costumes my mother made or bought them for me. I remember being dressed up as a red crayon for Halloween in second grade. My mom constructed the costume out of red poster board and string (to hold it up). She painted red circles on my cheeks with face paint. After trick or treating my cheeks burned and itched. I am (as it turned out) allergic to red food coloring. The red circles stayed on my cheeks in rash form for a couple weeks. Shortly after that I began making my own Halloween costumes.

I truly believed anyone in one of those ridiculous store bought plastic smocks and masks was no less than a lazy amateur. I was the proud creator of many brilliantly original costumes, in my not so humble opinion.One year I was a "little person". I wore a sweatshirt pulled down around my waist with the arms stuffed. I had a t shirt on with a face drawn on my stomach. Then I constructed a giant top hat which hid my real face an arms. The overall effect was more terrifying than planned, think of the movie Leprechaun. But, I got some great reviews from my fifth grade classmates.

My next major project in sixth grade was all about realism. I was going as a box of Cheerios. My mom wanted me to go as a witch but she knew it was too uninspired and boring for her little "artist". She caved and found a perfect sized box for me to decorate. I spent hour upon hour hunched in concentration trying to get all the little O's in the bowl just right. The lettering took the most time but in the end I felt like I had reached my goal. It. Was.Perfect. Never mind the few misspellings and an overall scale problem, the box was large, the lettering and images were very small... but these were meaningless mistakes any real artist would chalk up to "originality of vision". I trick or treated in the box which was both difficult to see out of and walk in. I walked around the block a little confused hitting one house twice. The man at the door insisted I had already been there, scowling at me. I started to argue with him, but how many other kids were walking around in professional masterpieces? He had a point. I shifted my box to see better and moved forward into the night.