Best Costume, no Costume at All

By Sheila Donnelly


The month of October has just flown by with Halloween coming upon us next Monday. Because Timmy and I are not eating wheat and sugar he isn’t going Tricks or Treating this year. He doesn’t mind as we both feel so good from eliminating these two foods from our diet. I have always liked Halloween and the celebration on November 1, the Day of the Dead that the Mexicans celebrate. I have been talking about Halloween and I have encountered several men that do not like this holiday at all. Their main reason is that they do not like to dress up in costume. Reporter, Josh Verges said, “I think it is a waste of time and money spending it on a costume that you wear for only a few hours.”
I don’t agree with him, as I have never spent much money on costumes but have gone to thrift stores and put articles of clothing together. These type of costumes are the least costly and usually the most clever.
My husband, Tom never liked to dress up for Halloween. But one year I talked him into wearing a white dish cloth wrapped on him like a diaper and he carried a baby bottle. He thought it was funny when he was at home and the kids thought he looked great, but when we arrived at the Halloween party we were attending, he didn’t last long walking around like that! I couldn’t get him to dress up for Halloween after that incident and he would say, “I don’t know how I let you talk me into dressing like that!”
But he likes to be the center of attention and the year I was pregnant with our fifth child, Theresa, he came up with his own Halloween costume. He wrapped his hand and taped his middle finger down and told everyone at the Halloween gathering we were at that he had sliced part of his finger off when he was cutting wood with the buzz saw. Right away the hostess of the party was very sympathetic to Tom. But one couple, David and Sue were watching Tom sip away at his beer and the two commented, “What kind of pain medication are you on that you are able to function and still drink alcohol?”
I was sitting near by and didn’t say a word as this was his prank. Tom slowly took a sip of beer, clutched his wrapped hand and said, “Darvon. It is really helping; I don’t feel too much pain. I do feel a little light headed though.”
David and Sue started to laugh as they did not believe him. The hostess of the party was angry because these two didn’t take Tom’s injury seriously. She came to me and said, “What is wrong with those two? I can’t believe the way they are carrying on. Anyone can clearly see that Tom is in such pain. I am so amazed and grateful that you made it to my party. I feel really bad for you as you are having this new baby soon. What a strain this is for you…”
I didn’t know what to say, so I kept my mouth shut and because of this the hostess thought I was in great stress. Several people offered me comfort about what a tough time our family was going through. I started to think that they were going to set up funding to tide us through this “terrible time”.
Tom didn’t know I was getting all this sympathy and he went on with his prank by going into the bathroom and took the bandages off his finger. He had a small cardboard box with a hole cut in the bottom and cotton wads in the box. He put red makeup on his finger and than put a lid on the box. Tom came out of the bathroom and walked up to the hostess and said, “The doctor gave my finger back to me today after I got it cut off, do you want to see it?”
The hostess looked horrified, but she gingerly opened the box, saw Tom’s “bloody” finger and gasped. Then Tom wiggled his “cut off” finger and boy was she ticked off then! His un-costume costume was a hit at the party, but he has never been able to repeat it again.