10.31.2006

Ghosts of Halloween Past

Happy Halloween! To celebrate this All Hallow's Eve I present to you a tour of my costumes of Halloween past. Hope you enjoy.

Halloween 1971
We start the tour in the year of 1971. My sister is 1 1/2 and I am (almost) 3. The outfit that sis is wearing is something that Mom concocted with a bedsheet. She had me wear the same thing when I was Amy's age. In fact, there's a photo of me wearing this bedsheet/bunny-thing and I have this strange confused look on my face. Mom tells me that I'm looking at her as she's trying to take the photo but can't because she's laughing so hard at me. (I couldn't find the photo.) UPDATE: Found it! Here, my love for Disney and Mickey Mouse becomes self evident at the (extremely brown) kitchen table.

Halloween 1973
Next is 1973. Umm, I have to explain this. See, my Dad was notorious for freestyling a costume for Halloween. The more ludicrous, the better. He would dress up in anything that he could get his hands on: in this year's case, it was some old white pantyhose and an outrageous bedsheet. (Just check out that pattern! What could we do? It was the 70's.) Amy is 3, I'm (almost) 5. Lookit, I'm already digging the classic horror monsters: Frankenstein's monster. Amy is another monster of sorts: Barbie.

Halloween 1976 (part 1)
1976: This is me, our friend Susan, and my sister Amy. I'm some sort of ghoul, not sure what Susan was, sis was a gypsy. This is just as we are about to embark upon our trick-or-treatin' -- I was in full character with that freakish pose. I believe Mom painted on that third eye, probably at the last minute.

Halloween 1976 (part 2)
Just down the street, our neighbors loved our costumes so much that they took a photo of us. I'm posting this because I find it hilarious that I'm still in character.

Halloween 1978
1978: I'm saving the best for last. This is perhaps one of my favorite Halloween costumes of all time. I was almost 10 and was so into horror and blood and creepy stuff. I definitely was into full "gross phase" at this stage in my life.

My costume was as follows: I ripped up some old jeans and a sweater and put some fake blood in the rips and holes, I painted the skull on my face myself (complete with fake blood), I had Mom buy some black leggings so I could paint skeleton legs that could be seen through the holes in the jeans, and -- the kicker -- I taped my right eye shut and glued a paper mache eyeball that I had made by myself earlier in the day (with optical nerve, of course). Also, I had a fake rubber hand that was supposed to be in the shot here (it's on the ground in front of me), and with it, I would try to freak people out by dropping it into the candy bowl or whatever as I went out trick-or-treating. Ahh, good times.

That's it for this year's Halloween! Hope you all have a wonderfully spooky time tonight and don't get too stuffed from your annual haunting the neighborhood for sweets and sugar!

8 comments:

  1. '78 is just a stunner, Ward! Wow, the little touch with the ripped knees and the bones underneath - genius!

    I was completely obsessed with Dick Smith and Tom Savini in the early '80s (for a spell I was even determined to be a special effects make-up artist) so I think we would have plenty to talk about.

    Happy Halloween!

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  2. These are great! Have a Happy Halloween!

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  3. HEY! What a fun post. Hilarious. I really dig that fake dangling eyeball you created in that last pic! Also...that's a very impressive skull face painting job, especially for 10!!! It's so interesting to see you that young...what a crazy kid!

    But what I wanna know is, how many jack-o-lanterns did you punch/kick/roll down the streets as a prank? Any toilet paperings? C'mon, spill it! Okay, okay...you don't have to. But I have an excuse for all my Halloween tricks, I was just caving in to peer pressure as a sad attempt to be popular!

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  4. Hope your Halloween was great!

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  5. I can see why that last one was your favorite! Awesome that you did so much of the conceptand work yourself at that age!

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  6. What costume? Those are my everyday
    work clothes...The Dadman

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  7. heheheh I had the same exact mickey costume..i have some film footage which is really funny..gotta put that on youtube someday when i get a chance

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  8. Neat pictures! Your creative spirit was evident even back then. If you're interested, have a look at my blog (called "The Ghosts of Halloweens Past," coincidentally) for more retro Halloween stuff.

    ghostsofhalloween.blogspot.com

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