Pics of Halloweens Past

It’s Halloween time! This used to be my favorite holiday — I loved dressing up for the day. Lately, though, I just don’t have the time to commit to the preparation. For my costumes, preparation often started months before the day, and getting into costume and makeup on the day sometimes took a couple of hours. Here are some samples of my past Halloweens:

1999: Grim Reaper. This was one of the easiest costumes, as everything was basically just bought off the shelf at Walmart.

2001: Devil. This one took some preparation and even practice before the day. The horns on my forehead and the points on my ears are rubber prostheses adhered with glue. Then all the red is stage makeup, and the black hair and beard is stage dyed. The little devil with me is Cowgrit10 when he was just nine months old.

2002: Killer Clown. This was another one that took some preparation and practice. And a lot of fake blood.

2003: Zombie. And yet again some prep and practice. Quite a bit more practice this time, to get that face prosthesis correct. That’s right: my whole face is covered with a rubber mask glued to my skin, made up, and bloodied. I bought the suit at the local Goodwill store — I bought it too big for me so it looked like I lost mass decomposing in the grave — and then rolled around in the dirt to give it that freshly-dug-out-of-the-grave look.

2005: Captain America. This one took more time getting the costume made than it did putting it on in the morning. That shirt and mask are both fully homemade. The gloves and boots are home dyed. The shield was specially constructed by a professional shield maker, (it’s legitimately “battle-quality”). Under the costume is a full-body muscle suit, (Mr. Incredible). Spider-Man with me is Cowgrit10 when he was four years old. That year was the only year I went trick-or-treating in full costume — we got a lot of great comments and compliments. [You've seen part of this costume in a previous post: My Application for Geek of the Year.]

Here are my boys on Halloween over the past few years:

2008: Clone Troopers.
2009: Clone Trooper and Boba Fett.
2010: Somethings scary.

For the past few years, I’ve put in just a minimal effort to present for a couple hours in the evening. This was me last year:

The horns are glued on, colored with makeup, and bloodied to hide the edges. I added a little dark under my eyes to give me a bit of a “possessed” look. Putting this on took only about 20 minutes.

It’s simple, but effective. People were amazed at how real the horns look to be coming right out of my skull and skin.

This year, I’m not doing makeup or prostheses or blood; I’m going back to a simple costume — reviving my Grim Reaper of 1999.

My plan is to stand completely still like a statue/prop next to our front door, and only move, (slowly, subtly), after kids get their candy. I was able to pull this trick on some adults back in ’99, with hilarious results. It’ll be fun to see how kids react. (I will restrain myself from scaring little kids. But older kids are fair game.)

Bullgrit