Back in the day…
It was easy for our parents to get us ready for Halloween. Put plastic costume over coat, add mask and you are ready for Trick or Treating. None of this browse the web for the perfect costume, or sew one yourself. Here’s me (Snow White, of course) and my cousins, when we still lived in Chicago:
And when those plastic costumes fell out of style, it wasn’t all fairy princesses and tutus. We were serious pirates:
And when we graduated from preschool, we didn’t have fancy real caps and gowns (I don’t understand that trend. How long has that been going on?). Nope, we had construction paper caps and ribbons. Like my bruises? I bruise easily 
And we didn’t have fancy Etsy artwork, or free IndieFixx art project downloads. No, we just ripped the covers off our TV Guides. And yes, that is Donny and Marie.
And you couldn’t have anything nice, because your bratty brother and sister would just come along and ruin it. One of my favorite Betsy books:
Thank you, Lauren, for writing in my book. Gah!!! My sister also used to chew the hands of feet of my Barbie dolls turning them into monster claws. Nice.
October 11th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Serious pirates wore black Casio watches to time their attacks? How’d they navigate the seas, GPS?
=)
October 11th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
LOL! That was a good one, hon.
October 11th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Before I saw the last picture I was thinking I remeber that book I loved it! Sorry I ruined your book and chewed your barbie hands
October 13th, 2009 at 7:33 am
I feel your pain..I had a costume like that for years. There were a few years mom made me one, but WHO didn’t have a plastic mask costume, I mean really??
And I was the little sister who ruined all my big sisters stuff, I once dropped a whole bunch of her Barbie clothes down a storm sewer.. she held that one over me FOR YEARS…we are best friends now, whew.
Excellent Retro Post, keep them coming…
October 13th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Ouch.. Barbie clothes down a storm drain. That’s bad, haha.