After seeing ?Secondhand Lions?, we stopped at the Halloween store across the street. Heidi wanted to get some face makeup. She wasn?t planning to dress up, she said, she just wanted to paint her face. What a cool store! They had just about everything you could think of.
When I was a kid, there weren?t any stores devoted solely to Halloween ? not that I knew of anyway. Still, it was pretty easy to dress up with just a few props. My brother went as a bum several years, borrowing one of my father?s shirts and smearing his face with black makeup. My parents bought a cheap derby and a play cigar and there you go. Bum made easy.
The coolest costume I ever created was that of an elderly lady. I bought a gray wig, a fake cane, and a pair of wire rim glasses. I used my mom?s makeup for my face, drawing wrinkles around my mouth, nose and eyes with a grease pencil. I wore one of my dad?s shirts and a folded over bed sheet pinned around my waist. My mom let me borrow my baby blanket, which made a great shawl.
I was the hit of the neighborhood and of the bowling alley. I won first place for most creative costume at the bowling alley. Around the neighborhood, people kept inviting me to come in so everyone could take a look at my costume. It was so cool.
When the kids were little, part of the fun was putting their costumes together and adding the props. I didn't want them to wear masks because they aren't to easy to see through and I felt they are a tripping hazard. We made a little Batman costume for Billy using his pajamas -- which looked like Batman's gear -- and making our own cape and hood. We got a colored wig for Heidi, some clown makeup and mismatched clothes. When they got older, though, they didn't want face makeup anymore.
Well ? the last few years, I haven?t seen much more than vampires, witches, grim reapers, dead teenagers and other gruesome and gory characters. I guess it?s cool to go around covered in blood makeup and looking like a horror. The first couple of times I saw these costumes I thought, oh, that?s cool ? it?s scary. But after the first dozen times it got old.
Instead of using face makeup you can buy all kinds of rubber masks. It provides anonymity. No one knows who you are. On the other hand, the rubber masks are kind of generic looking, you know? When you?ve seen one, you?ve seen them all.
Another thing I?ve noticed is the increase in big menacing looking teenagers going around for candy. When I was younger, I went trick or treating until I was 14. Some of the adults giving out the candy would ask, ?Aren?t you too big for this?? The following year, I was the one passing out the candy because I wasn?t into running the neighborhood egging cars and wrapping houses.
Don?t say that to a big kid today though. They look scary! What?s more, after they get candy from you if it?s not what they like they?ll come back and egg the house or cover the car in shaving cream.
Every once in a while I open the door and there is a kid who is in an original costume and it looks cute or cool. It?s worth it to hand out the treats just for that reason.
Monday Madness:
1. How often do you change or add to your blogroll list? If you don't use blogroll, how often do you add or change links to your 'favorite reads' list?
This is a relatively new blog so I don?t have any blog webrings or ?favorite? reads yet other than TB?s. Eventually, I?ll get around to adding some and I would check maybe once a week.
2. Do you visit your blogrolls regularly? If so, how often?
Once I get into them, probably daily or every other day.
3. Do you visit other people's blogrolls or 'faves' list?
I bookmarked blogs that I read every day. Some time I?ll make a ?faves? list for this blog and list all the ones I like to read.
4. About how many blogs have you blogrolled (or have linked on your blog)?
Just TB?s on this blog so far.
5. Do you change your layout or color scheme regularly? If so, how often? If not, have you thought about changing the look of your blog? Feel free to elaborate!
I know next to nothing about making my own template. I?d have to download a free one designed by someone else. If I could do it myself, I?d have my kitties and my loved ones? faces in a border. I?d pick one of my favorite colors (they tend to be the ?warm? ones) as a background.
I have found some templates online that I would like to use in the meantime. I?m just not sure how to upload them to the journal program we have on this website. TB, who has a lot more patience than I do, has been looking into how we could do that. My inclination would be to download a template and use the html in place of what is on the index template now ? but if that was the wrong thing to do, the whole thing could get screwed up.
Better to leave well enough alone for the time being!
Posted by Cassie at October 13, 2003 04:44 PM