grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

I was a Mexican for Halloween

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When we were kids, my sister and I rummaged through our closet and put together Halloween outfits from our regular clothes. Sometimes we used hats and belts and strings of beads from Momma’s closet. Or we made accessories from construction paper and grocery sacks. That was how Halloween worked before Party City and Wal-Mart and twenty-four hour on-line shopping. Other than plastic masks at Sterling’s, there were no elaborate costume choices.

In first grade, Momma got creative and sewed handmade costumes. The scariest thing about my witch costume was the heavy-handed eyebrow makeup. My sister/cat rode along on my broom and stole the show. As usual.

Vintage Witch and Cat Halloween Costume Grace Grits and Gardening
One year I was a free-spirited gypsy with flowing purple skirt and jangly jewelry. Since Mammaw Tate sold Avon to the mysterious clan of gypsies who periodically lived on the edge of Osceola, I knew exactly how they dressed.

Another year I was a hobo. This was a simple (lazy) look requiring only my too-short jeans and a kerchief tied to a stick that fell from the cottonwood tree in the back yard. 
The year I went as a Mexican, I won second place in the Keiser Halloween mini-parade. This costume was one of my favorites repeated several years in a row the way today’s little princesses rock the pink tutu and sparkly crown year after year after year. For this costume I donned a real sombrero and draped a colorful woven blanket over my shoulders. And as the final touch, I carried Momma’s ukulele and sang Aihh-yi-yi-yi in my best Ricky Ricardo voice.

ukulele - I was a Mexican for Halloween

Yes, Momma plays the ukulele. Sorta.

In no way was this Halloween costume meant to be a politically incorrect slam. I was in complete awe of the farm labor who came from South Texas each summer to chop cotton. They traveled to Arkansas in a large convoy, with the entire extended family in tow.

While on our farm, they cooked platters of tamales wrapped in corn husks and sweets made from caramelized sugar. They brought giant bags of juicy grapefruits and sweet onions from The Valley, a magical Neverland near the Rio Grande. I longed to see it…someday…

When their work was done and our fields were free of Johnsongrass, they packed up and traveled to Michigan for new adventures picking tomatoes. The Mexicans worked and played and journeyed as one cohesive group and were not forced to sit in one flat delta field for all of eternity.

They were as free-spirited as those gypsies on the edge of town.

I wanted to be a Mexican when I grew up. Until, of course, that summer Daddy made us chop cotton with them…

That’s a whole other story.

What was your favorite childhood costume?

talya

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

P.S. Somewhere buried in the BAT CAVE lies a picture of me in my Mexican costume. When I find it, I will share… (If you are unfamiliar with the Bat Cave, click HERE.)

Musical Pairing:

ZZ Top, Just Got Paid

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Comments

  1. Our daughter always wants to be some bizarre abstract person, place, or thing. She has gone as everything from the night to Robinson Crusoe in girl form to her latest costume, a lily pad. 🙂 Wonderful memories!

  2. I grew up near Corpus Christi, in the little cotton farming towns. I have a taste for tamales and watermelon, Mexican candy, tacos… oh my! So many of my friends’ families made such delicious food, I was always a little jealous of their abuelitas’ kitchen skills!

  3. Talya, I love your blast from the past Halloween memories and ZZ TOP! 😉 Perfect. The Valley IS a magical place. My dad grew up Brownsville and I heard stories about the Valley for years…..I finally visited for myself a couple of years ago, and I fell in love with it!

    Can’t wait for you to find that picture… 🙂

    Love, Joy @ Yesterfood

  5. My husband grew up in Corpus Christi and 8m from El Paso. We just had our wedding and my Mom brought tamales, Chicos Tacos, and biscochos for the BBQ-style reception. It was like I was home! Found your link on the Texas Women Bloggers FB page!

  7. Great picture of a cute little witch and her cat! I was always a gypsy — except for one year when I was four or five and demanded to wear my brother’s hand-me-down devil costume. I’d wear one of my mother’s full skirts with an off the shoulder blouse if I had one and lots of necklaces and bangle bracelets. Sometimes, I’d do the scarf thing around my hair, but it never stayed on! I’d like to see you in that red sombrero!

  8. The one year I REMEMBER having a hand-made costume was my favorite. It was a devil, complete with horns and a tail, which was tied to my wrist and threaded through an eyelet on the shoulder so that as I moved my arm, the tail swung around.

    Meme (my father’s mother) made it for me. It was tomato red, and my mother put some sort of red make-up on my face and did something for eyebrows, etc. I don’t recall ever seeing a picture, but some must exist. 🙂

    Of course, that was also back in the days when you could actually eat fruit and popcorn balls and brownies and stuff that you got on Halloween.

  9. hey talya. it’s wolfie from the river. i love your stories. great job taking a halloween costume and making something thought-provoking out of it, especially with the title.
    we were out last week between the obion river and memphis, and we passed by the infamous island 35. have you ever written anything about it? point me there if you have.
    see ya,
    wolf e. staudinger

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

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