I brought the mail in my house yesterday and tossed it in the catch-all basket where we put junk mail until we both have a look at it. Today, I sorted through the junk mail and found a multi-page catalog for one of those Halloween stores that seem to come and go in the night. You know…here today and gone tomorrow. Or, maybe that is a big city thing…
Anywho….
I glanced through the pages. There was page after page of Halloween costumes for children and adults. The prices range from $9.99 to $59.99. The costumes were everything from a lady bug to a very realistic police officer uniform. (Am I the only one who sees something wrong with that????)
Shewweee…. That got my old mind to spinning…
Back in the day, very few kids had the luxury of a store-bought Halloween costume. I remember the excitement as the holiday approached. The question of the day was “What are you going to be for Halloween?” Every self-respecting kid already knew the answer and believe me, it was not any one of the popular TV characters like SpongeBob Squarepants or Elmo or some super hero.
No…our costumes were always homemade out of old clothes, scraps of material or a sheet with holes cut for the eyes. We were ghosts, hobo’s, pirates, witches…you get the pic? Oldsters will know exactly what I’m talking about. You younger people may have a bit of a problem grasping this concept…. So then…..
A kid with a clever Mom, like mine, might be a spaceman or a ballerina… I was a black cat once. All that was required was a black leotard and imagination. Some ears and a tail were fashioned from black satin and my whiskers were drawn on with an eyebrow pencil.
My mask was the simple black mask for upper face. Another time, I was a hobo in one of my Dad’s old shirts and pants. A rope held the way-too-big pants up and a beat up old hat was found for me by my Grandpa. A bandana stuffed with wadded up newspaper and tied to a stick completed the look. Of course my face was “filthy” with charcoal. I could go on and on about different costumes we made with or without assistance from our Mom, but that’s not the point. My point is this… We were healthy, happy kids back in the day. We didn’t get something as frivolous as a store-bought costume. Hardly anyone bought a Halloween costume. Half the fun of Halloween was to decide what we would be then make our own costume. We used our imagination and we could be anything we wanted to be. If a little boy wanted to be Superman, well then…he went trick-or-treating in his favorite Superman PJ’s with some red cloth tied around his neck for a cape. What’s wrong with that?
I don’t think children today exercise their imagination like children did back when I was a kid. We did things like color in coloring books, finger paint, play games, create things out of clay – and it wasn’t Play Dough… No siree… Our clay was grey and hard to use until we worked it over with our warm little hands. We didn’t sit in front of a TV all day because back then, all we could see was a test pattern all day until 5 pm when television “came on”. Then we had the Mickey Mouse club at 5 pm, then the news, some evening shows and the broadcast day ended with a variety show where a cigarette pack
with beautiful legs danced around the stage. I wasn’t allowed to watch that, but I peeked. Hee hee… Then the television went “off” until the next day at 5 pm. I sure wanted to have that cigarette pack for a Halloween costume! Were we bored? No way! We played outside for hours every day and played inside when the weather was bad. In our imaginations, we were cowboys and Indians riding imaginary horses. Or we played physical games like Red Rover or King on the Mountain, hopscotch and the like. We used our imaginations and we exercised our growing bodies. I have nothing but fond memories of such a childhood.
I see kids today who are pudgy from lack of exercise and poor eating habits. Most need to be entertained by something…TV, video games and the like. When I was a kid, I got entertained with the Mickey Mouse Club before mostly adult programming was broadcast. One night a week, I got to see Kukla, Fran & Ollie. That is all. The rest of the time, I was tortured by fresh air, exercise and my imagination…
Oh…and Grimm’s Fairytales…
That is what REAL kids do…or used to back in the day. I’d love to see some real kids. Have you seen any lately?
By Darlene Cirinna
©September 30, 2011
All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Photos from Photobucket, public domain.
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