Laura's Halloween History Timeline

In the grand spirit of last week's Bruce Campbell Involvement Timeline, I'm bringing you another report of my personal history in dealing with another topic that's both fun and exciting and, strangely, seasonally appropriate: Halloween.

This timeline will not have world events, more's the pity.

	1985-88: No Costumes I call these years "The Dark Ages". This is my period of malicious snubbery of Halloween and all it stood for. If anyone had approached my during these early years, asking if I wanted to celebrate Halloween, I am certain I would not dignify the question with an answer; in the latter period of this era, I would shake my head and say defiantly, "NO!"
	1989: Cinderella It is important to note that I was Cinderella in her rags stage, NOT her riches stage. Everyone thought I was a pilgrim. I hated them.
	1990: A Cutie Wutie Widdul Bunny I'm pretty sure I never understood the concept of Halloween being scary.
	1991: White Cat, Lab Mouse or Polar Bear This was just a modified version of the bunny costume from the year before. I wanted to be a cat, but the way the bunny ears were curled over and shortened made them look round. My whiskers-and-pink-nose makeup made me look too harmless to be a bear, but my ears were too small to be a really effective mouse, so I just failed at everything.
	1992: Belle I was the girl from the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast. I wanted to wear the blue dress and apron from the beginning, thus wearing a costume remarkably similar to my 1989 Cinderella, but my mom said that was too boring. It's pretty sad when your parents say you're too boring. I ended up going in the gold ball gown, and everyone thought I was a princess, and the girls at Brownie Scouts said my hair wasn't done right. Kids can be so cruel.
	1993: An Indian A remarkably well-researched Plains Indian costume.
	1994: That cat-bear thing again Three years later, the costume didn't fit anymore, so I just wore white clothes and the old head-thing that had the little ears on it. Unable to decide on my animal, ready to face up to the fact that I was too round-eared to be a proper cat, I stated my costume as simply "A Stuffed Animal." This was about the last year I was cute enough to get away with that kind of thing.
	1995: A Hippie This is about the stupidest idea for a Halloween costume I can think of. "Making people feel old by emulating popular ideas of their youth culture the same way other kids emulate medieval knights and fifteenth-century pirates is a good way to get them to give you candy!" This costume also requires a certain amount of disrespect for 60s counterculture that I would be ashamed of in my own seventh grade grunge period. All in all, bad times, especially since my peace sign necklaces were made of cardboard and I wore the same headpiece from my 1993 Indian costume. (I guess was into recycling.)
	1996: A Grecian woman This around when I started liking Xena, and Paul starting studying Classics, and my mom had a book which said how to make ancient Greek togas and such. This is one of the few non-ghost costumes you can make with nothing but a white bedsheet.
	1997: No Costume This is the point when I decided I was too old for Halloween, so I didn't go out.
	1998: A Pirate "One more year," I must have decided. Last year I'd renounced the little-girl things of my past, but this year I specifically decided I wanted a boys' Halloween costume. I spent all my costume-building time (actually, my mom's; what, me sew?) making a shirt like the one my brother had when he went out at Halloween as Mendoza from Mysterious Cities of Gold. I think I must have intended to go out as Mendoza, but at the last moment changed to a pirate by adding the cheapo drugstore red-bandana-and-plastic-eyepatch set.
	1999: A Prince Continuing my trends of (a)being a ten-year-old boy and (b)recycling costumes, I used my Mendoza shirt from last year, adding a blue cape made out of a bedsheet, a cheesy wooden sword and cardboard shield, and, amazingly, spats. I was a remarkably Mendoza-esque prince. I wanted my girlfriend to go with me as a princess, but at three months my senior, she was too old and mature to go out.
	2000: Haruka This was during my brief obsession with Haruka and Michiru, the lesbian Sailor Senshi from the Sailor Moon S series. Not only was I able to create a pretty good recreation of Haruka's boys' school uniform, I also bleached my hair just to look like her. I happened to have her exact hair cut, and I remember really looking like her. Unfortunately, I have no pictures. HA HA!
	2001: A Woman In a stroke of post-modern genius, I've decided to go as a woman this year. I've got a long blonde wig and I'm going to wear a lot of make-up. It's going to be my best costume yet! I hope yours is too! Happy Halloween!