Photo Friday: Halloween's on its Way! Edition (1966-1967)

Good morning! 

 Do you know, this has been such a crazy year that I'd all but forgotten about the best holiday of the season coming up? H-A-L-L-O-W-E-E-N, BAYBEE. It's practically upon us. As the big day falls on a Thursday this year (what a gyp), I'll be celebrating the weekend after at a friend's combination birthday/witching hour party. While I usually go to elaborate lengths to use the event as an excuse for a DIY extravaganza, this year we're going a little more low key (but still fun! I'll show you our costumes next week)...however! That does not mean my little heart isn't bleeding orange and black for the holiday itself. 

In early celebration, here are some fabulous photos I found on flickr of Other People's Halloweens, year of our Lord 1966-1967. Let's take a look!

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Now, here's what I'm talking about. The whole classroom is working together in a symphony of visual stimulation here. Superheroes, skeletons, clowns, devils, pirates...how about the one ball-fringe festooned witch's broom laid carelessly on the work table in front of her? I love thinking that someone's mom had come for the yearly Halloween party, and as the teacher had everyone rise for some kind of activity, thought to take a quick snap of the room as a whole. Whose kid is the mom's, do you think? I can remember the excitement with which I was imbued as my mom volunteered to get scary, chocolate iced cupcakes with little rings shaped like neon spiders and skulls from the Kroger's bakery for our first grade Halloween party, and how disappointed I was when I caught a cold on the big day and wasn't able to wow everyone with my home-assembled princess costume (pointed hat with trailing tulle and all, in gold and white!). I'm pretty sure I recovered in time for the actual trick or treating, but missed the gratitude of my tiny classmates for the store-bought cupcakes. Do you remember how much of a hero you felt like when your mom or dad or grandma would come to school for this or that occasion, bearing food?

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This little guy is so over his Superman costume, he could care less that he has an officially licensed cape and "S" to go out under. I love his splayed feet and the hightops on them (Clark Kent didn't have time to change out of his street shoes, ok?). How about that patterned linoleum and the slim lines of that olive drab colored couch?

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A similarly fully licensed character, this guy is way too teeny for his muscly-counterpart's head mask! It gives the weirdest sense of proportion to see a chisel-jawed, Bruce Wayne face on this diminutive, toddler body! I bet that little guy had a ball that year. Look at his brother like, "Hey, Mikey...there's something different about you, I just can't put my finger on it..."

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I love this one just because I would want a costume like this for myself, uh, now. Look at little girl's cat's eye glasses to match her leopard ensemble! Ugh! She is to cute! Also, it's rocking that she's dispensed with the mittens attached to her costume for better getting-at-candy. What loot! Full size Hershey bars! Good work!

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Thes children are terrifying, but committed to full costumery, which I can respect. Do you love their homemade Halloween decorations, lovingly taped to the mantle over the Encyclopedia Brittanica (my grandma had World Book, but what a familiar sight, encyclopedias at the homestead!)...? I am gaga over that tiny Halloween-themed diorama of which I am squinting to make out the details. I wish the older sibling's costume was like this much less horrifying, because that hat with the shrieking black cat on it is actually pretty boss.

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The starkness of this photo is what cracks me up more than the DIY ness of the paper bag costuming. "Turn to the front! Now to the back! And then over to the sarge's desk for fingerprinting and processing!" Straight up Weegee up in this piece. I think the kid made the owl suit himself, and if you look at the details, it's pretty well done, overall, for a grade schooler. Do you see how the neck and the wings correspond up to his own neck and arms on the back panel of the costume? A lot of impact on a little budget. Whooo whoooo...you can just hear him cooing, hands outstretched for candy? A for effort, sir.

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A GI Joe deep sea diver suit, which looked like this in real life as a toy. Isn't he cute? I wonder if there was some kind of helmet included that the kid chose not to wear of if the little stocking cap was all you got. Look at how detailed the little belt and gun at the hip are, complete with see-through fish panel on the right leg. I've decided licensed character Halloween costume designer for kids would be another of my dream jobs of the mid century. I want a couple like this to frame and hang in the house!

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This little girl is Cinderella (with her glamorous mom and a tv I would like to own). The grown-up woman who posted the photo throws in her two cents in the caption, which I'll duplicate in part here: "This costume came in a box from the store. It made my face itchy and I couldn't really see...I look a little like Dame Edna here - seriously. Who thought this was gorgeous Cinderella??" The sweet part is, though, her own daughter went as (a much less weird, completely cute, Disney-tie-in) Cinderella for Halloween around the same age! I do have to agree with her that the while I love this dress, the mask for Cinderella is so weird!! 

Speaking of weird masks, one of these things is not like the other:

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Can you see a mother saying to her four children, "Ok, you're a ghost...ghost...here's your ghost...and you're gonna be..." "MOO-O-O-OM, I wanna be Bugs Bunny! I don't wanna be a ghost!" "Maybe you could be Bugs Bunny as a ghost, you know, after he goes to Rabbit Heaven?" "NO. IT IS NOT THE SAME. I HAVE TO BE BUGS BUNNY." The expressions on the maskless children are so sweet, and those tiny dark eyes poking out from Bugs's face mask! Just priceless.

Did you have a favorite (or least favorite, haha) Halloween costume as a little guy or girl? Which of these costumes do you think is the best or the worst? What do you remember most about Halloween as a grade schooler, particularly in a time period where they still let you celebrate Halloween with ghouls and goblins and witches in public school (I think I was just on the tail end of that golden era)? Let's talk!

Have a spo-o-o-o-oky weekend, and I'll see you guys back here on Monday. Til then!