In October of 1962 I had my first lesson in social engineering, though I didn't know what it was called. I simply thought that the kid across the street had an unfortunate Halloween costume, though I didn't know what that was called. The poor guy was seven years old, the kid across the street. He was my age. He was a pretty cool kid. I liked him. Why I even thought of him as being "my best friend". I'll call him "Jack" because what with President Kennedy in the White House, "Jack" was the coolest name at the time.
Poor Jack went out on Halloween night of 1962 wearing a "home made costume" and I probably don't need to say anything more. That was the age of TV Land, of unbridled American prosperity, and yes, the age of cheap plastic. It is hard to remember perhaps, that there was a moment when all those things were new. Accordingly all the kids wore Yogi Bear masks, Lone Ranger masks, Bugs Bunny and Snow White masks, and of course you had your perennial pirate and John Wayne outfits.
Poor Jack.
He went out that night wearing an outfit that his well intentioned mother had made from scratch. I suspect that she'd seen the design in Good Housekeeping magazine--it had that kind of planned flair that one associates with the Singer sewing machine and well meaning domesticity. Jack's mother had labored mightily over her son's costume and that was only the half of it since she probably had to argue like Cicero to get her kid to wear the thing.
And argue she did, for Jack went out that night wearing a body length black witch hat. He was a walking pointed hat with feet. His mother had given him two little peep holes so he could navigate. And Jack could sort of see where he was going if he held his witch hat straight like a church steeple. The trouble was with his feet. The hat had a wide brim that surrounded his ankles and as he walked the entire contraption would sway and Jack would get his sneakers caught on his brim and he'd lurch and lose eye contact with his peep holes and he would stumble on curbs and steps.
Jack protested from inside his getup. His mother kept telling him in the politest terms to shut up and walk.
Years later when I saw the movie "To Kill a Mockingbird" and I saw the scene where Scout goes out on Halloween dressed as an enormous baked ham, I thought of poor Jack in his hat.
Remember folks, kids like the cheap stuff. They're out for candy.
Now that I think about it I realize that Jack was undergoing a blindness simulation experiment. All he really needed was a white cane. You can't get far from disability, especially on Halloween.
Oh, and you parents out there? Give kids the "big" candy bars, okay?
S.K.
Poor Jack in his hat! This is a great Halloween story. The "Jack" in our neighborhood was a kid whose mom decided that going as a mummy - wrapped in toilet paper - was a creative solution...unfortunately he spent most of the day spinning around when the other kids found out that yanking at the paper as they passed by turned him into a human gyroscope!
Happy Halloween!
Posted by: Ruth | October 31, 2007 at 01:18 PM