The Ghost of Halloween Past

As you may have figured out, I don't have a "summer job". I -- being the naturally contrary creature that I am -- have a "Halloween job".

Now, when I say "Halloween", that doesn't mean I start working, say, October 15. I started yesterday.

It's a theatrical costume shop. This is, like, my fifth halloween working here. I have the job because, well... it was my mom's first job, and my dad's current job, and the store is owned by a close family friend... you get the idea.

But, at halloween, extra people are hired, because halloween is the big season! And I got to meet someone new, and we sat, and talked, and fought over who got to use the good pricing gun, and I told stories about Halloweens Past.

Like the guy who dressed up as Norman Bates' Mother.

Or the more memorable customers. A woman is standing there, fighting with us, and her husband, in the middle of the dressing rooms. Her husband is in a toga, and she has a packaged costume in her hand. I suddenly hear her cry out, "No! We have to match! If I go as Juliet, he has to go as Romeo. But if he goes as Caesar, then I have to go as a Pink Lady!"

The list goes on.

My personal favorite: We have all the pictures of costumes up on the wall, and they all have a number. You give us the number, and we'll pull the bag out of one of the boxes in the back. The pictures are organized very simply, by size -- "infant", "child", "adult", and "plus". Fine. So, a very petite woman comes to me, and gives me a number. I go, and grab it, to find that it's a plus-size costume. There's no way it'll fit, so I go and get the regular adult size, which might be too big for her still. And I explain that it would fit better, and point to it on the wall, as it has it's own picture. But no, she wants the plus. She takes it out of the bag, and holds it up to her body. Entirely too big. "Do you want the smaller size?" She stares at me, blankly. She stares back at the wall, horrified that "plus" did not mean it was a better costume. "You mean it's the same costume, just bigger?" She bought the smaller one.