An advertisement in my newspaper this morning invited people to come to the Ag. Coop Exchange to learn 101 tips for sewing. Oh how I could have used this when my children were little, especially when it was close to Halloween. I am one of seven children and Halloween was one of our favorite days of the year! All that candy!!! We also had a mother who was a good seamstress, very artistic and imaginative. She could whip up a costume, with the help of her children, in a heartbeat, and did every year for each of us. Back then, there were no ready-made costume stores; you had to create your own if you were to be seen in your neighborhood on "All Hallows Eve," pillow-case in hand, going door to door for treats.Around this time every year, my brothers and sisters would sit at the table over dinner and discuss what they were going to be on this frightful night in our young lives. My mother's sharp attention would help to steer the conversation towards something she (we) could either sew up, or create. It was usually my brother John who had the wildest ideas, and often Mother had to discourage him from wanting to be a donkey or a horse, i.e. Then, when we were ready, the Conlan kids would go out en mass, the oldest looking after the youngest, always taking her hand. This would have been my sister Chris. We would go as ghosts, witches, cowboys (cowgirls, my favorite), princesses, exotic, scary creatures, goblins, T.V. characters or cartoons all of which Mother helped to create. Back home with our stash, we would spread out our "loot" across the living room rug trading back and forth for the kinds of candy we liked the best. I always had to watch my two brothers very carefully during this period of exchange. For me, as a kid, Halloween was the best! But as an adult, and mother of two, it was the worst! I was clearly not my mother; I neither sewed nor had her keen imagination and artistic touch. And, even then, there were no Costume stores from which to simply buy an outfit. So, off my children went, year after year, in something created and put together by us...whatever we could come up with at the time, and though I was not my mother, we did not do too badly, even though the weeks before almost gave me hives. The thing we could always count on, however, was that no other kid had their costume; it was a unique creation and one of a kind. Somehow, even with all the angst, I think it was better.
As you can see above, my sister inherited my Mother's artistic talent. Wouldn't this make a great costume???
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