HALLOWEEN'S A'COMIN!

I am not totally sure that this is the way to introduce you to my husband, but with the spooky holiday right around the corner I think he'll understand.

Those of you who are "in the know" will recognize by the pix of Jerry that I am learning a little something about Photoshop, and while mostly what I've learned thus far has been applied to photos that need a tinch of editing or restoration, the capability of distorting things has given me a whole lot of ideas to play around with. So far I've distorted myself, my daughter Erin and Jerry. I must admit Jerry's face has far exceeded in drama the faces Erin and I ended up with.

I have always enjoyed Halloween. When we were kids mother used to pick our costumes for "trick-or-treating." In those days neighborhoods were safe, neighbors were kind, and we could count on getting enough candy to eat for the next year.

The picture is from my "baby book" and mother noted that I was four years old, which would make my little sister Ginnie Lou two. I can remember putting on the witch's mask that went along with my costume and hearing Ginnie Lou shriek with fear. I always thought that I didn't get to wear the mask in the picture because of that, but in thinking about it now, I suppose mother wanted a picture that included our darling little faces; posterity would not be served if they were hidden behind masks! And I'm sure our trick-or-treating at such a young age was just a token tour of our apartment building.

Later as we got old enough to go by ourselves, my sis and I tended to want to dress in attractive costumes and not look like witches, devils or ghosts. The picture below was taken when I was 11; I wanted to be a gypsy and my mother was able to sew up a costume for me that was satisfactory. I thought I was quite stunning in this outfit. As I recall, my sister was a pirate, also in a costume made by my mother.

It was long after my own children were of a trick-or-treating age that it became dangerous to go door to door on one's own. And dangerous to eat any treats that were given. It is such a shame that our society has gone down this path of meanness. Not all of society, of course, but enough that little kids today don't get to experience the wild runs from house to house lugging a pillowcase full of penny candy, excitedly beating on door after door and yelling "TRICK OR TREAT." Our parents did not have to go with us; they told us how far from home we could go. They expected us to obey and we did. We are always disgruntled at people who gave us apples instead of candy, and thought people who dropped a few pennies, or maybe a nickle, in our pillowcase were real skinflints. We wanted CANDY!

Since we've been retired and living in senior apartments, we never even see kids in Halloween costumes any more. However, I still remember with great fondness my many years of trick-or-treating and later on as teenagers, the parties we went to where haunted houses full of gross things to feel had been prepared by the parents.

This year, the nearest I can get to the real Halloween feeling is by turning my family into Photoshopped monsters. I must be honest and tell you I am having a great deal of fun doing this! I probably won't even miss the trick-or-treating this year.

THE SHEET FAMILY OF HALLOWEEN FAME

In one of my past iterations I worked in a small office filled with legal and medical professionals. Initially coming from a temporary agency and being hired shortly thereafter on a part time basis for doing light medical transcription, I found great pleasure in the hours spent with people whose brains I could admire. They also were a creative bunch, and at Halloween their creative juices took flights of fancy like you wouldn't believe. The year I was there, I was enabled to become a member of the Sheet Family.

Dress for the day was a large sheet with one hole for the head and two holes for the arms. On the back of the sheet where it stretched across our shoulders was the lettering: THE SHEET FAMILY. And on the front, each one of us had to pick our own given name.

As you can see from the photo above, family members were named NO, DUMB, TUFF, HOT, BULL, OH, LITTLE, A REAL, DIP, N DEEP, NEW, HOLY AND FULL OF.

We had made 11:30 lunch reservations at a local restaurant about three blocks away from our office, and at 11:15 we went downstairs in the elevator and took off walking along a busy highway to our destination. We expected people to stare - and to laugh - at us; what we did not expect was for cars to stop in the middle of the road to see what on earth was going on. Drivers would stick their arms outside the cars and signal us to "turn round" so they could see what our "given names" meant. Some cars came around the block twice. We were stopped along the street by passersby insisting on reading every last name.

And once in the restaurant, we were hardly able to eat our lunches because of others wanting to talk to us about our costumes. We were in a part of town that was highly commercial and many of the office people were dressed in absolutely outlandish costumes. Ours were simple and clever, and they were the hit of the day.

I do think you have to suspend your sense of propriety to pull of something like this, if propriety is an issue with you. It wasn't for me or for any of my friends, and not a Halloween goes by (it's been now close to 20 years) that I don't look at this picture and remember with great fondness that group of people and that occasion.

Those of you who know me will recognize me by my "name." Those of you who don't will just have to guess which one is me, but I'll give you a hint: I am.