My mother is solely responsible for my weird and twisted obsession with Halloween and all things haunted. She allowed me to watch the Munsters and The Addams Family, as well as stay up late on weekends watching whatever horror flick we could find. She introduced me to Bela, Lon and Vincent among others.
She never once scolded me for checking out only spooky and magic books from the school library. I'm sure she had to think I was a "little off" when the only books I brought home were full of haunted tales. I'm also certain she grew weary of my magical illusions which I gathered from my fave book Spooky Tricks by Rose Wyler and Gerald Ames. The Mummy Finger was one of my greatest.
Let me see...it went something like this.... You cut a hole in the bottom of a small box near one end - just big enough for your finger to slip through. Place the box in the palm of your hand, put your finger through the hole, surround finger with cotton batting and top off with the lid. Now, run to show your mom. Spin the tale of how you found a mummy's finger, have her remove the lid and as she peers inside wiggle your finger. Loved it!
And, when it came time to come up with a costume for Halloween both her and Dad would jump right in and help me conjure up something great. Oh there were some plastic masks and such nonsense along the way but I also had some pretty good witches, robots and other wacky costumes too.
While the Halloween decor was a bit lacking there were always plenty of corn stalk tee-pees, homemade treats, kleenex ghosts, freshly carved Jack O'Lanterns and this one little guy I blogged about here (which started an obsession).
I don't have any photos of my mom as a child in costume. I did stumble upon what I truly believe to be her in a book called Halloween: Vintage Holiday Graphics by Jim Heimann. She does not recall this photo (second from the left, front) but it looks just like her at that age. (I think she's just experiencing some memory loss.)
Anyway, it's a great little book. At least I think so as I somehow managed to purchase it - twice. Check it out when you get a chance as it's loaded with page after page of Halloween photos of yesteryear.
Hope you're having a great birthday Mom!!
Well, that's a wrap! Haunt on!
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