More Memories of Oldy and Moldy Halloweens

In 1979 we had three chances for Halloween dress-up -- two parties and the real thing.

 

Here we have Joyce as some sort of doll that's NOT the sort of doll she usually is.

 

Having spent a half-hour or more gluing latex pieces to my face and dabbing on red fake blood, my preferred choice was to sit still when a new person arrived and then suddenly say "Boo!" -- hoping they had thought I was a mannequin.  (They already thought I was a dummy.)

 

The next night, my favorite get-up.  Mr smart-aleck himself, the inspiration for so much of my personality, ladies and gentlemen, Mr Groucho Marx (Junior).

 

It's an illustration of my adolescent unpopularity that, as a teenager, I had the time to fill dozens of 3x5 index cards with Marxisms, sorted by topic, to use as crib sheets whenever I got the chance to slip into this persona.  Just as cynical and loudmouthed  as the real me, but (I hoped) more loveable.

 

Examples:

"You must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle."

"You remind me of the Prince of Wales.  And believe me, I know a whale when I see one."

 

 



 

Since years before the advent of portable computers and notebooks, here is still my favorite laptop.

 

Joyce is some sort of generic clown (WAIT A MINUTE-- I thought that was MY job!) -- wearing a flannel shirt of mine, and also the orange derby (with sergeant's stripes glued onto the front) I wore in my high-school church's production of Godspell.

Here's to more silly and wonderful Halloweens ahead!