I was hoping some of y'all might have some costume pics to share from your golden years of Halloween. I'll kick things off with a walk down memory lane of the Halloweens of my childhood, 1981 through 1992.
Before I could remember what I liked or disliked, I knew there were two things I loved; my fuzzy doggy (which I still have):
and Halloween!! That was me in October of 1981, excited for my first real Halloween. That year, I was Casper, the kinda creepy friendly ghost:
I was a ghoul for most of my life, but in 1982 I had the one non-scary costume of my childhood. Both my brother (the wolfman) and I went as E.T.s:
In 1983, I went as Dracula... my first non-plastic mask:
In 1984, we had a creepy porch witch:
I had a bizarre "werewolf" costume, and my brother went as a gorilla. Why a werewolf would have a green face and curly red hair, I'll leave to the Chinese costume manufacturer to explain:
This was also my little brother's first year trick or treating, and he went as a smurf:
In 1985, I was a scary ghost, and my older brother went as a heavy metal glam rocker:
My little brother insisted on being a smurf again. Here he is with my dad, who was the principal of our elementary school in West Virginia (before he shaved his head and moved to California and changed his name to "Andy"). He was a very popular administrator:
I was scary that year!!!
In 1986, I was a ninja. The chicks dug me:
'86 was a rough year. Our parents were going through a bad divorce, and Halloween was about the only happy time all year. Older brother was the Wolfman once again, and little brother was Mickey:
We moved to Maryland in 1987, and Mummy was determined we were gonna have just as good a Halloween as we did when Dad was around. This was Zelda, our scary, weird dummy that sat on the front porch and fooled all the neighborhood kids:
We had our faces painted at the FallFest:
And I had two costumes that year. One for the school party (back when schools still had Halloween parties):
And ghost makeup and fake hair for trick or treating:
Little brother was the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup that year! Wasn't he adorable?!?
In 1988, I went as Freddy Kruger. This was before you could buy Freddy sweaters in any Target or Walmart. I had to find a mask that looked kinda Freddyish, and get a weird old brown jacket at Goodwill. The hat too (which is now part of one of my Halloween yard decorations). The glove was the easy bit:
Older brother went as a monster, and little brother was Egon from
Ghostbusters:
In 1989, I was gettin' creative. I made our costumes (for little brother and I... Big brother was done trick or treating). I made the axe for Jason (with the mask made from cardboard) and the reaper scythe out of tree branches and blocks of wood covered in duct tape:
In 1990, my heart wasn't as much into it, and I threw this costume together at the last minute; some sort of Phantomy-skullish thing, that actually won a prize in school for "Oddest costume". Little brother was a gorilla:
In 1991, I put the sewing machine I got for my birthday to use, and stitched myself a Punisher costume out of a black turtleneck and sweatpants. I was a rather rotund Punisher:
Little brother went as The Phantom Of The Opera, and he loves to remind me every year that
he was the original phantom:
Here are our pumpkins from that year... can you guess which one I carved??
And finally, 1992, my last year of trick or treating. I spent quite a lot of time helping my brother put together his Green Goblin costume:
Little brother's friend should have been Spider-Man, but ahhhh.. Marvel, DC... who's counting??
I very nearly skipped trick or treating, because I was thirteen, but at the last minute decided I would go. I threw together a reaper costume, and I was glad I went:
Not that I need the candy, chunky thing that I was. But it was fitting that my costume for the end of the Halloween of my childhood was death. The robe I made with my sewing machine.
That was the end of trick or treating for me, but the spirit of Halloween never died. Halloween will never be quite as joyful as it was those twelve years, but it's almost as good.
So does anyone else have any nostalgic pictures of their Halloweens past?!?
Congratulations for making it home alive.
And I know what you mean; I'm sure I have memories of things before the age of five, like when I went to pre-school for a single day and cried and screamed the entire time, until my mother came to pick me up with my brother in tow, who proceeded to eat all the peanut-butter balls that were set out for a snack. But then, I wonder if it's an actual memory, or if I created it from stories I was told. 
