These youngsters today with their imaginative, elaborate, natural-fiber costumes. Feh! In MY day our moms took us to Woolco’s and bought us a flimsy cardboard box containing a freakishly misshapen mask and a vinyl sleeveless jumpsuit.
On Halloween night we’d strap on the mask, which smelled like an odd mixture of turpentine and money, and zip the jumpsuit over our polyester flannel metal-button shirts and dark-blue Wranglers. We couldn’t see, we couldn’t breathe, and we couldn’t walk without sounding like someone was polishing garbage bags.
And then the cheap rubber band on the mask would break, and our moms would have to use one of our shoelaces, or we’d have to hold the mask to our face. And then we’d lose our masks, and there’d be a wind-blown parade of Fonzie and Luke Skywalker faces floating down the street.
Plastic Jack-o-lantern containers. Flibbity-floo! In MY day we had white shopping bags from McDonalds with poorly-drawn monsters trying to frighten Ronald and the gang. And we didn’t get “fun-size” Snickers, or small packets of M&Ms. No, we got circus peanuts, and candy corn, and those vile peanut-butter things in orange and black wrappers!
Those are some powerfully lame costumes. Were they ever sold in the united states? They look like something you’d find in a third world country that gets US television shows.
I had homemeade costumes in the 60s before the TV heyday of the 70s. Highlights were a full bodysuit red devil costume and full drag one year. I think mom wanted at least one daughter but couldn’t get me to sit with my knees together.
[sarcasm]
Thanks alot, Max, for drudging up some absolutely horrible memories. I thought I had blocked them all out, but you brought them back:
Memories of walking around with my plastic jack-o-lantern to hold my candy (Made from flimsy plastic) and going from house to house in my skeleton costume that mom had bought at the store the previous week (which also had a flimsy plastic mask with the cheap rubber band to hold it on) still haunt me. And since dad was too old to run very fast, we never could get to enough houses and had to keep yelling at him to go faster.
Thank you very much!
[/sarcasm]
Actually those were some of my best memories. The costumes sucked, but it was so much fun to go around the neighborhood dressed up and get more candy that I could possibly imagine (That plastic jack-o-lantern was pretty big!)
Padeye, yes. In fact those type of costumes are still sold in the US. Amazing what people will spend $8.00 USD on nowadays.
You fools! We used pillowcases to hold our candy. Pillowcases are strong. I still recommend them–they hold more than those plastic pumpkins, too.
Why, back in those days (late 70’s, early 80’s), we made a battle plan for trick or treating. When your bag got too full, you emptied it out at home and went out for more. We trick or treated for hours. At least it seemed like it. No parental supervision, either.
Buy costumes?? Hah! Back in the 70’s when I was kid, I was a hobo every single year 'cause that’s all I could dream up given what I had to work with – stuff in the house. Just got some of Dad’s old clothes (baggy on me, of course), and rubbed some “black stuff” on my cheeks that I found from Mom’s makeup. Presto, hobo.
Oh, yeah, and I used an old pillowcase to hold for candy.
I don’t even remember if there were places to buy costumes, but I guess since it was not even remotely an option to which I would have been entitled, I probably didn’t even notice.
I grew up in a small town. It was the one night a year when you could really go wild. Freakin’ 10 years old out with some buddies and getting sacks and sacks of candy. Just keep going back to the house with the full sized Hershey bars. Home made candy apples. Firecrackers weren’t legal but they were available. and those who couldn’t get firecrackers just shot off 22’s. It was great.
Yeah, Halloween was great in the 70’s. No parents, just roaming around to something like a hundred houses, getting mountains of candy in our pillowcases.
Kids today get the short end of the stick. Mom and dad have to come with you. Most trick or treating here in NYC is even done before the sun goes down. Every piece of candy needs to be inspected. What a crappy world we live in…
I trick-or-treated in the 70’s. My friend dressed as a girl when we were about 10 years old. Of course, I squeezed his tits. I would probably be on ritalin if we did any such thing now.
I remember getting apples, and spiced wafers in little bags with candy corn. Blech.
Soccer mom’s run Halloween now, so it’s been toned down a bit.
Storm Trooper masks bought at Woolworths were the prototypical flimsy chemical laden masks with the cheapo white elastic string that had two little metal clips that kept it attached to the mask.
Our old standby for when mom thought we outgrew Halloween was to dress as a bumb. Some black shoe polish or burned cork for the scruffy beard, some tattered clothes and the rolled up clothes on the end of a stick.
I always had a problem with “FUN SIZE!” candy. First off, Mr. Candy Maker…you want to know what the “fun size” really is? It’s the full size bar, not the stubby little one we get on Halloween.
Fortunately, now adults are allowed to celebrate Halloween. Woo-hoo!
Another thing I remembered. Yeah, we also never had the option of a store-bought costume. One year my brother made himself a good robot costume out of two paper bags. I believe plastic garbage bags were used another year. For me, Mom would buy a single piece of extremely cheap fabric, black for a witch or white for an angel, fold it in half, cut a hole for the head, put it on me, make two little holes for a belt to go through, use a piece of hair ribbon as a belt, and voila! Clothes were worn underneath.
The way people accumulate stuff nowadays, any kid ought to be able to make a good costume just by going through the closets.
The proper Hobo Beard comes from instand coffee crystals glued to your face. Although I cannot remember what adhesive we used back then.
My mother’s favorite ploy was to mix flour and water to make a paste that we would spread on our faces, then allow to dry and crack, creating a Zombie look. Yes, it itched like hell.
Another favorite was to wrap ourselves with aluminum foil and be a Robot.
I remeber one of those cheap ass costumes, mine was GI Joe. I carried a Daisy air rifle as part of that costume, can you imagine the trouble you’d get in today. Another year my freinds and I went as soldiers, with realistic cap guns ,the type you can’t buy anymore. Th next year we went as the mob. Yep, black trenchcoats, guns and all. Ah, the 80’s.
Pillow cases were definetly the way do go. Also, having a backup costume at home, preferably with lots of makeup, so you can go back to the same houses. Score!