It's the most wonderful time of the year.....

Yes, I know.  All of my more Christian friends are going to be giving me grief over THAT title, but didn't I already do a post about being wired differently than most people?

I've often wondered whether my love of Halloween came from some inner wiring that has always loved the idea of being someone - or something - else for a time or whether, perhaps, it's because my grandmother passed away on Halloween in 1967 and I just have grasped it as a kind of memorial thing for her.  After all, one of the few recollections I have of Grammy Dow is going in to see her, all dressed up for Halloween, while she was in her bed, too sick to get up but too stubborn to not see her grandchildren and personally give them a treat.  Then again, when I was in high school, I decided I wanted to be an actress as my post-graduation career because I loved to get into a costume and let another character take over my life for a brief time.

Today, I'll be going into my job at Staples as a gypsy.  Because I have to climb ladders to get the stock to put out on the shelves, my gypsy skirt will have a set of leggings and thigh-high boots under it so that anyone on the floor will only see pant legs instead of my panties should they try to look up my skirt.  Because there is a rule against wearing anything risqué, I went and visited former co-workers at Macy's yesterday and got a gypsy-looking shirt that is higher cut on the neckline than the originally planned low cut shirt and corset look (which I'll still be wearing to a friend's party on Saturday, but not to work).

Here are a few of my favorite costumes of the past years with a little explanation of what the thought was behind them:

 

The aliens are attacking - my hair!!!  (The alien bug-eyes are a head band I picked up at a costume shop, and the purple wig made me think of Marge Simpson.  Inside the wig, there was also a voice changing gadget, and when I wanted the alien to "talk", there was a little microphone next to my left ear.  I would pull down the microphone and let the alien "speak" from time to time....)

 

 

When doing some renovations, my husband found a truly HUGE pair of coveralls under a bathroom floor.  After a thorough cleaning, I used them as my costume that year, with a pillow stuffed down my front and a pillow stuffed down my back to make me look twice as large around as I really was.  Pigtails, a blacked-out tooth, and freckles completed the "Fryeburg's Beauty Queen" look.  (I won a prize from my work place for most original costume that year.....)

 

And then there's this one, which is my absolute favorite of all the costumes over the years:  The punk band that was formed by myself (in the middle), my husband (the guitar player) and my brother.  It was the early 80's.  Wendy O. Williams, Devo, and other such bands were big.  We probably caused a hole in the ozone ourselves with the use of hair spray and spray-in hair color that year - and the name of the band is STILL rude enough that I don't want to spell it out for you here.  (Ask me to message you in private if you REALLY must know....*grin*)

 

Of course, my yard also gets totally decked out, although I've toned it down a little with the grandkids having to come in.  (There were several years that we had NO trick or treaters on the dark road we live on, so I had started to go a bit over-the-top.)  Give the youngest "injun" a couple more years to get used to her Yamma's strange sense of humor and I can start putting out things like zombie gnomes eating a flamingo yard ornament, the Crypt Keeper and Freddie Krueger (jump suits filled with leaves and old masks from former costumes put into play) romping together, etc......

 

So even though I've opted to let the characters take me over when I'm writing, I still like getting into a costume and becoming someone else for one day out of every year....

 

And since I borrowed a line from a Christmas tune, I guess I'll have to do another blog about my feelings about an overly commercialized holiday that makes normally sane people go out at midnight on the day after Thanksgiving and beat each other to a pulp over television sets, cameras and game stations.....

 

Or is that last paragraph more than enough to convey my feelings?

 

Happy Halloween - or Samhain, if you prefer the Wiccan name for it - everyone!!