Fall 2024

y sisters and I grew up on a farm in the country.We did not have a lot growing up, but we loved Halloween. Our closest neighbor was two city blocks away. No one ever came to our door for “trick-or-treat” but my mom always had candy on hand in hopes some- one would find us. We would dress in costumes that were mildly terrifying, dreaming of collecting chocolate and candy, as our dad drove us to his friends’ houses, since walking was out of the question. Those friends were just as surprised to find someone ringing their doorbells, and were unprepared to give us treats. So, our plastic pumpkins were filled with money, cookies and some- times little figurines instead of the mini candies, gummy bears and choco- late M&M’s we craved. One time we were offered hot chocolate, but we didn’t care. It was just so much fun anyway. Our little minds prayed to the twilight goths and suddenly our candy prayers were answered. We would go to our grandma’s house, nestled behind our home, and ring her doorbell. She never recognized us, but we knew she always had full-size chocolate candy bars to hand out.We would go back home, change out of our costumes, throw on a sheet with cut-out eyes, then go back to grandma’s house for more candy bars. It made her so happy to have trick-or-treaters, while we chuckled at our good luck. Halloween always had the feel of a fairy-tale book come to life.The art of its mystique was that, for one night a year, we could become something or someone else. Hiding behind our masks gave us courage and a weird little vibe to act out our dreams of being a clown, a hobo, a zombie or a cowgirl. Back in the 1800s, All Hallows’ Eve was a celebration on the eve of October 31. Celtic pagans came to believe that ghosts would come back to the earthly world where the souls of the dead would revisit their homes. It was believed that this was the last night for the dead to have their vengeance before moving on, so people wore disguises outside to avoid being recognized by dead relatives and enemies to prevent them from entering their homes. The most common costume was the white ghost sheet and the most common mask was the ghost or spirit mask. Similarly, in ancient Egypt masks were worn to connect the dead with the living. Mummies were fitted with masks in the likeness of the deceased so that the soul could locate the right body when the time came. As with most myths, the legend may not have been totally in sync with reality. Halloween evolved over the years from a night of dead spirits coming to haunt their relatives to a time of celebration and nighttime debauchery. The 1930s, while affected by the Great Depression, found neighbor- hoods beginning the tradition of passing out candy and creating haunted houses to curb bad behavior. Due to the times, costume buying was unaf- fordable for most, so homemade costumes were a way to still enjoy the tradition of disguise. It wasn’t until the 1950s that mass-produced boxed costumes became available to the middle class, which reflected popular movies and comics 94 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • F A L L 2 0 2 4 COLLECTING T E XT AND PHOTOGRA PHY B Y MAR J OR I E S OW Desperately Mad for Masks M A 1993 “Beavis” mask. The famed duo of “Beavis and Butt-Head” were a 1990s cultural phenomenom.