Halloween is upon us, and with two soirees, one tonight and one tomorrow, I am pulling out the entire assortment of costume garb and trying to decide how extreme I feel like going this year.
My husband is less enthusiastic and wants to know if putting an eye patch on is sufficient to pass for a “costume.”
Sigh.
I joked that he should pull out the “Bah Humbug” Christmas sweater and go as the Grinch. I think I’ll just throw a couple of sheets with eyeholes over both of us and call it a day.
Actually, some of the best costumes I have ever dreamt up worked best by teaming up with other people. I mean, if you’re going to look like a dope, why go it alone? Costume partners can make the sum of the parts so much better.
As an example, one year, as a spoof on my former beauty queen days, at the last minute a group of my gal pals and I each picked a city to represent (real or imaginary) and set about finding the gaudiest tiaras possible, hand-crafting obnoxious rhinestone encrusted banners and using enough hair spray to hold up the Great Pumpkin.
Miss Medellin carried a white rose and a toy machine gun, Miss Centerville (as in Ohio) carried a garland of wheat, Miss Jerseyville crafted her bouquet from a mini bale of hay, and moi as Miss Transylvania with fake blood dripping down my neck carried an apropos spray of black roses. The comments we got throughout the night were hilarious – and I thought no one would get it. Go figure.
Another year, I somehow talked a friend in to being a two-person horse. (People always want to know which end I was on. What are you kidding!? The front section – duh!)
When we arrived at the party, Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” was playing and we danced our way through the crowd. I am surprised we didn’t fall in to a big heap of brown faux fur.
No one could tell who we were until we took off the head which was so hot I thought I was going to pass out. But our ridiculous horse choreography had the crowd cracking up and I have never laughed so hard as when watching the video from that party. Our legs going in all directions and the horse head bobbing to the music was just one of those moments where you had to be there.
Classic brainless Halloween antics – but good ol’ fashioned fun. Wouldn’t have been the same without a friend who was willing to look stupid right along with me.
Each year, my favorite thing to do on Halloween is to walk around Balboa Island and watch all the adorable little kids in their costumes, the houses decked to the nines in spooky décor and neighbors sharing a glass of witchy brew. Some people think the good old days of kids ringing doorbells and shouting “trick or treat” are over. Not on the Island – Halloween is alive and well – thank you very much.
Some people like to dress up their pets, and surprisingly, the pets put up with this indignation at least long enough for a photo to be snapped and uploaded on to Facebook. I once tried to put a tiny jester’s hat on my cat Pete and, needless to say, it didn’t go over too well. I still have a small scar on my hand. What was I thinking? I’ll never forget the sight of Pete walking away from me with a disgusted look of “how could you!?”
So this Halloween I suggest you let the pets retain their dignity and partner up with someone on a clever costume concept. Things are always so much better when you do them together!
And if you see two bed sheet ghosts roaming the streets of Newport, you can probably guess who’s underneath.
Newport Beach resident Lynn Selich is a weekly columnist for the Newport Beach Independent, associate publisher of Newport Beach magazine and society editor for both publications. She can be reached at lynnselich@yahoo.com.
