I seem to be lacking the gay gene for loving Halloween. Each year when we were young kids, our mom would make costumes for the three of us. When our dad was not away on military assignments, he would also join in the fray, designing rather sophisticated costumes, including a robot for my brother, complete with a mechanized "radar" antenna; butterfly wings made of coat hangers and tissue paper for my sister; and for me a devil costume (how appropriate) made entirely of red paper fabric. Remember paper clothing??? Probably not the best thing to be wearing around flaming pumpkins.
As the years have gone on, I have found myself less and less enthralled by the holiday. Perhaps it's because I did theater for so many years, where I got to dress as other characters on a daily basis. Perhaps I just grew tired of the holiday. I can't determine when I began to feel ambivalent about it.
I do know that autumn is my favorite season. My birthday is in October. My favorite holiday, Thanksgiving, is in the fall. I've always embraced the gentle melancholy associated with the season, most likely because I see fall as a reflective season when nature is preparing for its winter sleep. I love the colors of harvest, the gourds, the smoke in the crisp air. And, I love pumpkins - but prefer them in a pie rather than on my doorstep!
From top to bottom: My brother Bruce in robot garb, 1960; me in my paper devil costume, 1960; my sister Cheryl and Bruce in homemade bunny outfits, me in a store-bought pirate getup, c.1961. Why I chose not to have a homemade costume that year is a mystery.
