Happy Halloween
Too often we think everything is getting worse. Here’s one thing that is getting better: Halloween.
I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to see that Halloween has become more and more of a holiday and a celebration. (And if it could just knock Christmas off the shelves I’d be truly delighted.)
What do I like about Halloween? I like the inventiveness it opens up in people. I like that both kids and adults participate. I love how neighbors’ houses become spooky showplaces just for one night, with many people hosting theatrical events. And truly — why wouldn’t theatre people love it?
My wife and I got married on Halloween. (At first she was a theatre person and I wasn’t, then we trended into my being a theatre person and her not. Change happens.) It was a full-on costume party — all 200 guests had to come in costume. The wedding party wore 18th century royal ballroom clothes. My mother was a witch, my father was a clown. (That was their costumes — not their true identities.) My good friend the endlessly silly Joe came as a court jester — truly the most appropos attire of the evening. My brother came as a butler and was too convincing: All night long people who thought he was waitstaff sent him to fetch drinks. The person I know who could most easily pass for Groucho Marx in making endlessly bad asides came as Groucho Marx, while his wife was a very convincing Mae West. And someone we didn’t know, the guest of a guest, came mostly naked under a long trench coat: whenever he opened the coat, a flash would go off and the costume automatically took a photo.
This year it’s plain that I’ve worked too much. I’ve been too busy. How do I know? Because I don’t have a costume. I’m still going to take the kids around, and we’ve decorated the house a little bit, but I don’t have a costume. One year I went as the Gulf War. (The original — 1991.) I glued sand all over my fatigues, painted on a geotopical map with placenames, and glued down army men and little planes and rocket launchers, several of which would actually fire. Another year I went as Howard Hughes — glued on an ugly wandering grey-white beard, drew fake broken hypodermic needles onto my arm and shuffled around with a tissue box and a bottle of fake urine specimen. (And wound up drinking so much alcohol that I accidentally swallowed half the beard, complete with sandwich matter stuck in it.) I’ve been Forbush Man. I’ve been a (female) streetwalker, and cut my legs shaving so badly that the tub filled with copious amounts of blood.
And this year I don’t have a costume.
This is a real wakeup call.
I still have a little time. I’ve got to figure something out.
November 2nd, 2006 at 9:05 am
As one of the ushers at Lee and Val’s wedding I can say that it was the most fun I’ve ever had at a wedding.
The day started with drinking at a lounge in the restaurant complex where the wedding was to take place. We were there to stay out of Val’s way as she set up the room and generally terrorized the waitstaff.
After the wedding most of the wedding party, with the bride and groom, ended up at the Black Cat bar in Absecon NJ. The bar tender, who was invited to the wedding but had to work, keep telling the customers about the wedding and pointing the wedding party out. Several of the customers bought us drinks and sent their congradulations.
I could write more about the wedding but I’d fill too much space. I do have the photos somewhere in my house. If I ever get the time and get them scanned, I’ll send them to Lee to post.
Paul
PS For a small fee I’ll keep the “better” picture out.
November 7th, 2006 at 9:36 am
Though Halloween has come and gone I have to make one comment. A few years back my wife and I went to a bar for a Halloween costume party because our son’s band was playing. I was Groucho again (see Lee’s remarks) and my lovely wife was a striking Statue of Liberty.
For me the best two costumes all night were actor Peter Fonda and author Fran Liebowitz. The people who dressed as them already looked enough like those celebs that all they had to do was dress right and fix their hair. Fonda also found the perfect aviator glasses to complete his outfit. We talked to him and he said many people had noted his resemblence to Jane’s brother, which prompted his get-up. I think a lot of people thought they were just two folks who neglected to wear costumes, but I was privately amused all night.
November 7th, 2006 at 2:21 pm
I once went as Bob Dylan. At the time my hair even looked somewhat like Dylan’s. (Not a happy thing.) I even wore a harmonica in a harmonica holder — and no one recognized me.