Memories of Halloween

Haven’t always dressed for Halloween, but two years stick out in my mind. The first was when I went to a party or a dance of some kind in Brampton dressed as the world’s oldest black baseball player. I had my uniform from playing on my baseball team in Heart Lake. I think I got a grey wig and did my face and hands in blackface. After wherever it was we partied I wondered what a mess washing this makeup off might make at home so I decided to go to the racquetball club to shower. It was late so there was hardly anybody there, but no sooner do I get into the shower than a black guy comes walking in. The look he gave me washing the blackface makeup off was priceless. I didn’t know whether to apologize if I offended him or just shut up, which I did.

The other was out west in Kelowna. I was going with a bunch of friends to the dance at the Corral but I had been very busy working and hadn’t had a chance to rent a costume. By the time I got to the rental place there wasn’t much left. I decided on the pink gorilla suit only because of the cool flashing eyes and despite the price which I think was close to a hundred dollars. To finish it off I had bought these big black rubber gorilla looking feet. Little did I realize what this outfit would mean for me at the dance.

This was at Laura’s I think before we headed to the Corral. There’s Sue, Karla, Darlene, Don, Brian, Sue, Larry, Brian, Laura and Wade.

I love to dance, so the first thing I didn’t think about was how hot it was going to be in that costume. It was brutal, so bad that I had to go in the bathroom and empty the sweat out of my rubber feet frequently or I could have easily fallen. Those darn feet also were no dancing shoes and it was hard to dance in them. Not only that but I only had two little openings for my eyes so it was hard to do any turns without killing someone. I did plan to not talk or tell anyone who I was. I asked my usual partners to dance and soon people started figuring out who I was because of my dancing style. I had never thought it was that obvious. Like most guys I was never crazy about asking a girl to dance for fear of getting turned down. In my gorilla suit I wondered if anyone would dance with me. I went for the youngest, prettiest girls in the bar and they all happily danced with me. I had a ball!

The sad part was that when I went the following week and asked those same girls to dance they all turned me down even though I told them that I was the guy in the gorilla suit. Apparently wearing a pink gorilla suit made dancing with me okay. Rather unsettling to get turned down as yourself.

Anyway, Happy Halloween.

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