halloween fun

Almost everyone has some sort of memory about dressing up as a kid. For many of us, it was just an occasional interest - one of many childhood games. On the other hand, for some people, playing dress up was a central part of childhood. I have a friend who used to go into her parents room pretty much every day, and try on anything that she could get a hold of. She grew up to be a fashion designer, just as everyone who knew her expected. Anyone that into child costumes was destined to either do fashion or theater.

When I was young my guardians did not approve of buying us costumes and they did not enjoy their children playing in their clothes. Because of this when Halloween rolled around we had to figure things out on our own. We didn't really have the choice of spending money on expensive costumes unless we had spent all year saving. My sister was a big help when it game to getting Halloween supplies though. She had belts, vests, scarves, you name it. Sometimes we even wore clothes backwards as a unique Halloween costume. The backwards man! We once even went as ghosts and just used our bed sheets.

Regardless, my favorite costumes were the ones where my parents pitched in on the effort. Some years they would get really into helping us get dressed up for Halloween. There was a year where we spent two weeks working on a costume for me and my sister to wear. My Father was a master at sewing and decided to help us get our costumes together. In his career job he worked for the school drama department sewing costumes all day. Maybe this is why they did not let us dress up! Either way, the kids at school loved the way his costumes fit.

Other times it was fun to improvise on our costume efforts. My sister and I loved to play the war games and such that my parents hated. When we wanted to do this we had to be very secretive about it in order to hide it from the folks. We would get sashes and fake swords and tie them at our belts. We were decked out ninjas running around slaying demons in the neighborhood. This used to be wildly fun for my sister and I. In some ways, these costumes we made for fun were better than the Halloween costumes for children that we bought.

When you are a child, being sneaky is always a fun and exciting thing to do around your parents. When I think back I believe that our parents must have had an idea of what we were doing but they just pretended to not notice. They probably thought "kids will be kids" and let it go. They probably just enjoyed when me and my sister enjoyed spending time together. They didn't care if we played pirates and Indians or cowboys as long as we were having fun and getting along with each other.