I don’t think I’ve ever written about the Halloween parties we had every year for 20 years, but if I have you don’t remember either. My family loves Halloween especially my husband who loves everything Halloween. A good friend Dana had a party at his house in the mid 1980s which gave us the idea to start our own. It started out small in 1986 with me inviting everyone I thought might enjoy dressing up and having a bowl of chili. We always had it on the Saturday before Halloween, which is always the Irvington Halloween Festival so I seldom had time to go to the festival. My son was in the Scouts colorguard one year and another my daughter was in the parade with a school group.
I covered all the furniture with white sheets (good way to cover upholstered furniture destroyed by our cat’s claws). We collected so many Halloween decorations over the years that our garage is still bursting at the seams. We even had a mummy sarcophagus from some movie set.
A friend Don would show his 16mm Halloween movies (like “The Wolfman”) on a sheet nailed to the garage. One year an IMPD helicopter circled overhead wondering what the heck was going on down there.
Another good friend Don would bake the most awesome cake fully decorated with scary stuff. I always made chili in several crockpots (got up to 5 pots which were gone in an hour and a half) and guests would bring goodies too.
Our good friends the Fletchers lived across the street and our daughter would take care of all the kids at their house with a kid’s party until she went away to college. On the 10th year we said it would be the last and 65 people came and begged us not to stop having the party! Our house doesn’t hold 65 and I remember one guest saying they couldn’t get to the kitchen and I told them to go outside and circle the house and try coming in the back door.
The costumes over the years were incredible – everyone trying to outdo the other and we gave little prizes in several categories. I always made the costumes we wore and some of the memorable ones were: husband as Henry VIII, me Anne Boleyn (with axe attached to the neck); him as a Highlander in a kilt, me as bagpipes with plaid face and pipes made from cardboard paper rolls; him as breakfast (eggs, bacon & toast on an iron skillet body) and me as a Lipton flow thru teabag (leaves in curtain sheers); him as a walrus, me as the carpenter and our most memorable was the 20th year. My daughter rented a Scarlett costume and her then boyfriend (later her husband) came as Rhett and I dressed in black face as Prissy. I made my big husband “the burning of Atlanta.” I watched Gone with the Wind over and over and drew the silhouette of the wagon going through Atlanta on his fluorescent orange sweatshirt and made a flaming head from silk mum leaves sewn to a knit cap (pictured here). Another of my own favorites was making myself Indian Corn from shoulder pads I’d saved.
The most unforgettable costume of a guest was our own CJ Woods when he came as his white, pregnant wife (Bride #2) and she came as an afro haired CJ. He has great legs and the pantyhose were a hit. Another was my mother (I made her into a bunch of grapes with purple silk night gown material stuffed) and the TV celebrity Jim Gerard came that year and I got a pic of them together.
We had to quit the parties after I started doing newspaper work (too many hours) but our family and friends still talk about them and we loved doing them. Got to see everyone at least once a year and the cobwebs in our house fit the party – beats having dozens of dinner parties over the years just to see friends.
Now I’m one of the Black Hats so I get to dress up for a good cause (charities) and enjoy Irvington’s Fantastic Halloween Festival — I think probably the best in the entire country — don’t miss it!
