Thursday, October 31, 2019

Oh, the Costumes We Created!

There was lots to love about Halloween and trick-or-treating when I was a kid in the 1950s and 1960s.  The cool weather was delightful.  The candy was a real treat because my mom rarely bought candy.  And seeing and admiring my friends in costumes was fun.  But maybe one of the best parts was creating and wearing our costumes.  


Halloween wasn't a commercial holiday like it is today.  Most of us scouted around our houses to come up with costume options then chose a character we wanted to or could portray based on what we had on hand or could find.  Parents and sometimes our grandparents or aunts and uncles helped with clothes or ideas for costumes, too.

In the 1959 photo above, in the front row, you can see a queen or princess, a knight-like character, another princess, a gypsy (probably me), a king or perhaps a jester, and a curly-headed bunny who looks like he may have Bugs Bunny printed on his clothes.  In the back row I see a boy wearing a flat cap--a newsboy?, a little Dutch girl in the center, a ghoul, and on the right a cowboy with black mask.  How I wish the photo were in focus!

And trick-or-treating in our town was different than it is today.  We knocked on the door, the door was opened, and then the person who lived in the home guessed who we were.  Are you Johnny?  Linda?  Mary?  In those days not only did neighbors know each other but nearly everyone in town knew who all the kids were.  And we didn't get any candy until the person at the door had identified each of us.

I liked Halloween in those days, before costumes were commercial, before candy was grab and go, when it was all about fun. 

I've written several other posts about Halloween and, my personal favorite, All Saints Day in El Salvador.

Happy Halloween!

This is a post for Amy Johnson Crow's 2019 version of 52 Ancestors.  The topic for this week was Trick or Treat.

–Nancy.

Copyright ©2019, Nancy Messier.  All Rights Reserved. 
Do not copy or use any content from this blog without written permission from the owner.
.

2 comments:

I appreciate your comments and look forward to reading what you have to say. Thanks for stopping by.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...