Monday, February 2, 2009

Plastic Masks

One of my earliest costume memories would be of Casper. That friendly ghost. Having a brother and uncreative parents meant that we both would be Casper that year. We should have strapped ourselves together and gone as Caspers the Siamese Ghosts.

My father, always trying to feel inventive and help those that aren't in need of help, got a pair of scissors and cut the eye holes and mouth holes on our masks to enable better seeing and breathing - two things that, to him, the mask manufacturers missed. Even at that early age I can remember feeling stupid with most of my face hanging out of Casper's face. The sharp edges left by my father's hack job probably didn't tickle, but I can't remember that detail, thankfully.

I'll have to get my hands on the old photo albums at my parents' and scan a bunch of Halloween shots. The Casper ones in particular.

Here's a kid that had a lesser father who left the mask intact.

Image source.

4 comments:

Ghoul Friday said...

Ah yes. Talk about sensory memories. I can remember the dampness on my face created by the humidity of my breath trapped between my skin and the hard plastic.

But even clearer is the sensation of pressing the tip of my tongue into the tiny breathing hole for the mouth: a perfect little circle with hard edges, better designed for a cribbage board than a portal for air (which is where I can understand how your father felt they didn't finish cutting the holes in the mask).

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh, what MEMORIES! I had just turned 3 in 1974 (the date on your source pic) and was probably begging to be Casper... If I close my eyes, I can still feel the thinness of that mask, the little string that snapped to the back your your head.

Wow, what a great shot - who knew it would bring back such great memories! (I just couldn't verbalize it near as well as Ghoul Friday!) ;)

Grim said...

I bet there were a lot of Casper's running around in the late 70's and early 80's. I had that costume one year too. Like Ghoul Friday said, I can remember trying to push my tongue through the little mouth hole on some of those masks. I think it might have gotten kind of stuck on more than one occasion, I remember being afraid of that but I kept doing it anyway. What else was I supposed to do when walking from house to house?

Anonymous said...

i remember having a frankenstien plastic mask, and yes, sticking my tongue into the small opening. couldnt resist!