Mummy and his Mommy
Friday, October 30, 2009 at 5:24PM 
Just as there is a trend toward high tech today, there is another trend toward high touch – homemade and wholesome.
–Meryl Gardner
I recognize that my desire to make WJ’s Halloween costumes is a little silly. But my mom made ours.
I remember watching the other kids come to school in store-bought costumes, the plastic suits reminiscent of doctor’s office dressing gowns and the shiny plastic masks with scratchy elastic, eyeholes the size of peas, and pinholes for air at the nostrils and mouth. I remember watching them walk through the piles of leaves in little bunches of superheroes and watching them climb onto the bus like a living listing of the Saturday morning cartoons. I remember watching them and being so jealous.
From my grown-up mommy vantage point, however, I am finding that a homemade Halloween costume is so much more fun and possibly holds a measure of nourishment I did not fully comprehend as a child. I like this idea of “high touch.” It must be genetic.
Last Friday night, our family set about the task of creating WJ’s requested mummy suit. We needed the costume for a party on Saturday morning so it was not the relaxed, taking things slow kind of moment I would have preferred. But we did have fun.
Everyone helped. WJ helped me rip a white sheet into long strips. Dave was on duty with the pulling off of loose strings.
And I was armed with my hot glue gun. I can knit but am not exactly a whiz with a needle and thread. In hindsight, I am not sure exactly why I felt it was prudent to wrap and hot-glue the white cloth to WJ’s costume while he was actually wearing it, but at the time it seemed very important and I only burned him a few times.
Was WJ pleased with his costume? Yes, he did not seem to mind that it was “high touch” instead of high tech. For now anyway. Ask me again this time next year.
Do you have any "high touch" traditions in your family?
Reader Comments (5)
I am extremely impressed. I love the first photo of him in his costume. You did a great job! When I was a kid I had a choice of either being Santa Claus, (for some reason my parents had a grown up sized Santa costume), or I could be a bum. That costume consisted of me dressing in black and my mom would rub brown paint on my face for dirt. I used to wish that I could be whatever I wanted to be for Halloween. If my mom made a cool mummy outfit like that, I would have been psyched! I could tell how proud he was of his costume when he told me what he was going to be today. You did great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, Emily , this post is wonderful and hits me right in the middle of my "Mommy does it this way becasue that's how *my* Mommy did it" bone! I am laughing out loud at the line about the hot gluing, I saw that one coming :) You are awesome, and the costume looks terrific!!!!
Oh Emily,
You are so brave. I made K's costume last year (when she was 2 1/2). She wanted for months to be Ming Ming Duckling from the Wonder Pets. I spent hours designing and then on the sewing machine to make a creation which in the end she refused to wear! Instead she wore a Froggy raincoat and boots and went as "The Frog the Wonder Pets was saving." Needless to say, I was fit to be tied!!!! This year I was not having the trouble and heartache, instead a $10 mermaid costume served for the Halloween parties and on the 31st, she wanted to be a princess! Thank goodness for a full dress-up box. Maybe when we are less finicky this Momma will be back in the costume business. Until then---Great job on W's costume. It looks great!!
My parents and I always made our own Halloween costumes and I much prefer it that way. I love the creativity it requires and how the whole family is involved in the process. My parents and I continue the tradition to this day. I was a bubblegum machine for Halloween this year and my significant other was a quarter. We all worked together to make our costumes from things we owned. It was wonderful, and I know I will do the same with my own children one day.
I always made the childrens costumes . When they were old enough to make their own they did a much better job. Ask about the Christmas presents.its a lmemory they'll never forget or let me forget. mom s