Our science fiction club will be 35 years old in April so we’ve been around for a long time. Of all the things we do for fun … & there are many … our Annual Halloween Party & Costume Contest are among the ones I enjoy the most.
When you’re part of a sci-fi club the members mostly don’t have a problem with dressing up on Halloween; we look FORWARD to it. I think that’s because we are dreamers of dreams, visionaries, hopeful for the future & are committed to the future we find in books of science that is still fiction, & a dedication to things that are good but somehow different. So we all pretty much look forward to the Halloween Party & the chance to be anyone or anyTHING we want to be for that one night a year. And for us, the joy is also in the sharing … our costumes & our personas with friends who also look forward to sharing theirs.
I can remember almost every costume Willy & I have worn, even from way back before we were a couple. But the costumes we’ve put together as a couple have been the most special.
We usually start shopping early; when most people haven’t even gotten over Easter I’m combing through catalogs looking for our costumes for 6 months away. I always ask Willy for suggestions & he always tells me just to pick something but eventually he drifts into my office & we look at all the costumes together. Sometimes he picks the costumes … like several years ago he chose Adult Squirrel Costumes for us, probably because we’d just spent 2 years attempting to evict a family of squirrels from our attic but actually because Willy thought the costumes with inflatable tails were the coolest. He only saw the error of his ways when we attempted to get into the car & ride to the Halloween Party. Most vehicles & seat belts with shoulder restraints were NEVER designed or intended for adult-size squirrels with inflatable tails. It was challenging but getting into the car left us both with a delightful memory that makes us laugh every time we remember it or look back at those squirrel costumes in pictures.
We’ve been Sumo Wrestlers & Minions & cheerleaders & Mousekateers. We’ve been Marge & Homer Simpson & Adam & Eve, which was Willy’s least favorite. He said all night long at the party he kept seeing me out of the corner of his eye & had to blink twice while he remembered I was in a costume & not actually naked. Each costume has its memories.
There’s also so much fun at the parties … seeing who is wearing what & in some cases trying to guess just what the WHAT is. And the Costume Contests are fun, too, although winning isn’t all that important to me. I just enjoy being there with everyone for a special evening. If we win a prize, that’s just icing on the black cat cake.
After all these years, deciding on & finding a costume has become more difficult. We’ve been just about everything.
This year when we were going through the costume catalogs we found a running Forrest Gump (it included running shorts, shirt, socks, a long beard & very long-haired wig, & the famous BUBBA GUMP SHRIMP COMPANY cap) & a girl hippie costume for Jenny. Willy immediately did a Forrest Gump impersonation, “I just started running & I ran & I ran & I ran all across the country … & then I stopped.” It was Gump incarnate & we’d found our costumes.
So this year Willy & I were Forrest & Jenny & we DID win the prize for MOST HUMOROUS … primarily because Willy’s costume was just so funny & his impersonation during our presentation was ‘spot on.’ We had a good time.
There are so many moments associated with the Halloween Party & our costumes that are memorable. But for us there is that one moment that makes it the MOST special for us ….
When the costumes come in the mail in a huge box with HalloweenCostumes.com written on the side, I don’t open it until Willy gets home & we open it together … kind of like kids at Christmas. And then we try them on right there in the kitchen. To me that’s when the magic starts. If the costumes are funny … like the Sumo Wrestlers or the squirrels with inflatable tails (Willy actually blew them up on the spot there in the kitchen before dinner), we laugh … & laugh … & laugh. It’s one of those most genuine & private moments spent with your special person that are indescribable. We are exactly on the same page, enjoying a moment that is only ours that we will remember forever & cherish … & hold dear whenever we see the pictures.
When we get to the party we may have temporarily forgotten the memory of opening those costumes & trying them on alone in the kitchen & laughing, but they will always be in our memory & will warm us when we think of them 100 years from now. I looked around the room at this year’s party & wondered how many of our wonderful & goofy friends had had the same experience. I hope they ALL did.
This year when our costumes came & we tried them on in the kitchen, Willy went outside & ran up the driveway & back. I made a video & said, “RUN, FORREST … RUN!” When he got back to the porch he said he wondered how many of our neighbors had seen him doing that. But we decided we didn’t care if the folks across the street or our neighbor walking her dog shared in our special “costume moment.” They will be forever a part of this year’s memory …
heimdalco 