"Watch Your Mouth"...by Jim Terry

Ok, what are you going to be for Halloween this year? Over the years, I have been a ghost, a vampire, the Grim Reaper, Cat in the Hat, Frankenstein, a zombie, and the list continues to go on and on. However, as I thought about the many costumes I had over the years, including the ones into my adult years, there is one in particular that stands out in my mind as being my favorite…Sylvester the cat.

I’m sure you all remember, at least those of us that are familiar with the Looney Tunes, that Sylvester was the black and white, tuxedo patterned, cat that was always trying to chase and catch the Tweety Bird. To his dismay, and over the years, he never seemed to catch that little yellow bird. Which, and just to point out, was a really good thing for us kids too! If he had caught the Tweety Bird the cartoon would have then ended…right? 😀  So because of my love for this adorable cartoon character, I asked my Mom that year for a costume that would be fashioned like Sylvester. 

For those of you who don’t know, my mother was not only an excellent writer/author/playwright but also an exceptional seamstress. She had been taught to sew by her mother and then passed that knowledge onto my sisters that wanted to learn how to sew.  I remember the day that my mother and I went to JoAnn Fabrics to get the fabric to create, what was in my mind anyhow, “the best costume ever.”

 

Because of my excitement, I recall asking my poor mother day after day, “When is my costume going to be finished?”  Well with what seemed like an eternity to a child being seven years old at the time and with a lot of patience on my mother’s part, the day of “the reveal” had come.   I remember my first glance at my costume. Never before had I seen a costume so wonderful…so grand…so PERFECT! 

Hallows’ Eve came and what was not part of my strategy for that evening, nor had I even thought of it, was for Mother Nature to throw a wrench into my carefully laid plan to be “the envy of the neighborhood children” by sporting the perfect costume. Have you ever heard the phrase, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute?” Well, that minute, that one that would have made my childhood dreams come true, never came that night. In fact, it was one of the coldest Halloweens ever to grace the southeast Idaho foothills, which also called for “a chance of snow.”

That evening entailed gusty winds that went right through you…sleet that felt as though it would lacerate you at it hit your skin’s surface… And finally snow, which later not only started to fall but also stuck to the ground. The setting that night was much more conducive to a holiday two months away that incorporates Santa and a sleigh not Hallows’ Eve.

For those of you who want to know, we did end up trick-or-treating that night but to my dismay, no one could really see my costume that I was so proud of and would make me the talk of the town. Instead of showing off my Sylvester the Cat costume as I had planned, it was concealed by one of the most pathetic costumes ever.  I was dressed in a head to toe wrap which included a coat, a scarf, a set of gloves and moon boots because of the wrath that Mother Nature created that night. I looked very similar to Randy on the movie Christmas Story, but a bonus for me, I could at least put my arms down! 😂 

A year had passed and in my young heart I apparently really never let go of the anger and disappointment I felt the previous Halloween by not being able to show off my costume. This was evident the following year if anyone was able to witness my reply to my mother when she asked me, “What do you want to be for Halloween this year?”

With a slight hesitation, a mean look on my face and crossing my arms as I began to speak, the following sentence came out of my mouth. “I guess I’ll just be another damn Eskimo!”

Now let’s stop right here for a moment to clarify. Being only seven years old at the time, you have to realize that when I said this there was absolutely no prejudice, bigotry or narrow-mindedness at all towards the Eskimo population with what I said that day. All I knew as a child is that Eskimos had to dress really warm in order to survive in Alaska and in those “cold north areas.” This was simply my perception of what I looked like on the previous Halloween because of the cold weather we had experienced and how I had to dress the year prior. What really should be pointed out is the second to last word that I said that day.  In reference, once again, to the movie Christmas Story, remember when Ralphie was helping his Dad change the tire on the car and the word he said? "D-A-M-N," in our household, might as well have been the “queen mother of dirty words.” 

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As the story goes, you all will be happy to know that I didn’t have to place a bar of soap in my mouth or reveal where I had heard that word before–certainly I couldn’t say I had heard it watching Looney Tunes or drag my best friend down with me and the sinking ship I was in😀–but with the list of chores I was given and the two weeks that I was grounded from seeing my friends or playing the Atari 2600 still “haunts” me to this day.

So on this Halloween make sure to have fun with family and friends, get lots of candy, be safe, learn from my previous mistake (especially if you are young), and make sure that if you do not get your way or things don’t go quite as planned, Please...“WATCH YOUR MOUTH!”

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

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