Mama Kat Thursday: The Halloween's of Yesteryear

The Mama Kat blog writing prompt for today is: "Share a memorable Halloween costume."

An example of a 1960's boxed costume

For me to reminisce on a memorable Halloween costume means I have to time travel back to the 1960's when costumes weren't sold on a rack, but in a box.  Each costume consisted of a character mask and a satiny polyester knee-length one-piece outfit with short sleeves, legs and an open back that you stepped into, then tied at the back of the neck.
Usually it said the character name on front--just in case the mask wasn't identification enough.

I remember seeing row upon row of these boxed costumes at the five-and-dime store in town all through October. I remember looking at them longingly. They were exotic, sparkly things. But they cost $5. Far too expensive.

(In the 60's, that was roughly equivalent to $25 nowadays.)
Besides our Mother frequently sewed us costumes for free or we put together something from whatever we could find in the closets.

Despite that, I remember one year having one of those fancy boxed costumes to wear out trick or treating. It was a Casper the Ghost costume. I'm not sure how I came to have it--perhaps it was a used costume someone gave us. Or perhaps there was a spurge and we all 3 had a new boxed costumes--I can't remember. I do remember that Casper costume was blue on the bottom and  white with glittery silver decoration on top and had the word "Casper" across the front.

The mask was round and white with high arched Casper brows, a smiling Casper mouth, large round eye-holes to see through and tiny little nostril holes. It only covered the face and was held on by a rather tight elastic across the back of the head.

But it was very hot to wear and a nightmare to breathe in.

 So I would only put the mask on as I got out of the car to walk to a door, then would slip it off on the walk back to the car, usually wearing under my chin till the next stop.

(I probably should mention we did all our trick or treating by car, since we lived way, way out in the country and houses were pretty far apart.)

After that experience with the store-bought costume and breathing like Darth Vader in that mask, I think those box costumes lost their appeal.
That Casper costume was memorable because it was a novelty, but the best costumes I ever had were the leopard and tiger costumes  Mother made from a costume pattern. The leopard was when I was really young and the tiger was when I was in either 5th or 6th grade. 
In the 60's, when I was in grade school, Halloween was a huge deal! It was a festival of fun! Everyone brought their costumes to school, then during the last couple hours of the day, there was a school wide party! Everyone would put on their costume, then classes would take turns parading through every other classroom, so everyone would see all the costumes, then we'd have refreshments that numerous volunteer Mom's provided. The Mom's would stay for the party, of course, and that always meant not having to ride the bus.
*****
So, what's your favorite Halloween costume memory?

Thanks for Visiting!
*****
To join the Mama Kat fun, go here, sign up for the email list, then write a blog post on one of the suggested topics and link-up on Thursdays!
(There is a blog writing topic generator when you go to the link, but that's to inspire your blog writing on other days! Thursdays have a specific list of topics!)