Halloween Through the Eyes of a Child of the 1950's

Long before Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin, there was a time when kids were enchanted about Halloween and trick or treating and homemade costumes and simple times.  It was during the 1950's before television dictated our goals and lifestyles that we as children started conjuring up what simple costume we could put together to wear for the great night. 

Many hobos emerged (a favorite of the boys) with sooty 5 o'clock shadows and salvaged old bowler hats and dad's cast-off, oversized flannel shirts and rolled up droopy pants and an old pillow case for the candy prizes of the night.  The girls often found fancy Victorian picture hats, grandma's salvaged old fancy dresses and oversized purses and yards of beaded necklaces and furs when the attic trunks were raided for inspiration.  A tiara or two thrown in for good measure was a cherished prize to crown the night's royal character.  Even the simple pillow case with two very large raggedy eye holes cut out for the littlest member of the family to toddle along with the older kids as a scary ghost. 

Yes, as I began remembering how it was in my childhood, I found some pictures of my favorite comic book character, Little Lulu Moppet, and her friends, with wonderful pictures of their simple adventures in life and how they dealt with the Halloween quest for costume inspiration.  There were rarely masks to be worn and the homemade costumes were simple and just a suggestion of the character you had developed from your trip to the attic trunk and explored the world of your imagination.

I was inspired by my memories of these simple times to design three little characters as a tribute to my cherished childhood comic book characters and here they are:

A Witch to honor Little Lulu:

    

A wild and crazy clown to be Annie Inch's character (Lulu's best friend)  

 

and a little pirate that came out as a combination of Tubby Tompkins and Alvin Jones with one of those wonderful newspaper hats that my dad taught me how to make (and even one of those wooden swords that every boy had made and stashed away as a treasured weapon!

  

Here is the AppleDumplin Trick or Treat Gang

Happy Halloween!  Trick or Treat!!!!!