Blueberry Elf

I love costumes.
Always have and always will.

As a child I remember being
somewhat envious of other kids
wearing their store-bought
fancy costumes and masks,
but only until I realized
my Halloween costumes
were always original.
The earliest photograph
of one of my Halloween costumes
is of me; crouched, perching
on an old tree stump
in the front yard,
as a blueberry elf.
Greenish-blue tights, and a sweatshirt
with wire-strung cardboard and fabric
wings, and green tipped fabric ears,
along with a matching acorn-shaped cap
made my imagination fly and play
like the magical fairies of the forest.
I was 5 years old.

I have since learned it must be genetic...
My grandmother and great aunt also
loved to dress up and allow their imaginations
to soar.




Great-Aunt Cleone left me a scrapbook
and I can easily imagine being
part of her group of friends
at a costume party in 1916.
I am not sure who "Lu" is, though.






Remember your most outrageous costume?
I have trouble deciding.
Was it the year I convinced an 11 year-old friend
to be the tail-portion of a two-person
polka-dotted horse costume?
(Designed and build by my parents).

In high school I was in theater...
No further explanations are necessary.

Dating required the young man to plan on
wearing a partner costume
when going on a date in October.

Or perhaps in my early 20's when I
decided to throw a costume party...
Behind a ski boat....
Imagine what skiing
on the muddy Mississippi
does to a white prom dress,
or an old tux,
or a non-washable, fuzzy, leopard-print
"Jane" (without Tarzan) outfit.

Then I got into Civil War Reenacting.




Once again, no further explanations.

Or was it the year a girlfriend and I decided
it would be fun to dress as two
bunch of grapes;
I wore purple, she wore green
with plastic vines and leaves in our hair,
pinning corresponding colored
medium-sized
balloons
all over each other...
And then could not fit into the car...

Around that same time I was teaching water exercise
at various pools in the community.
Let's have another water-based costume party!
I was happy to provide water-proof costumes
to those who tried to forget to bring their own.
After all, fancy HATS, wigs and jewelry
are all you really need when you are
chest-deep in a swimming pool.





I knew John was the one for me:
We met in high school theater.
He loved the rock group KISS.
He was a Civil War reenactor first.
He understands that we have more containers
in the attic filled with costumes
than Christmas decorations.

He gets me.
M