My daughters have picked their hallowe'en outfits: they both want to be pirates. Boy pirates that is (which is OK by me).
My eldest daughter and I went searching around town for pirate outfits in little kid and big kid sizes and found the selection very picked over already. A saleslady finally clued us in (four words:"Pirates of the Caribbean"). My daughters haven't seen it, and it certainly isn't the reason they wanted to be pirates (my eldest daughter has had a thing for all things pirate since she was little).
Anyway, to the fabric store we went and found that all the simple pirate patterns had been plundered already (probably because of the damn Pirates of the Caribbean again). The only pattern left was quite an elaborate one with this groovy elegant Captain-Hook-ish coat and jabot. So it looks like I will be sewing for the next couple of weeks. Luckily it turns out it can be made out of felt, which makes the sewing task much, much easier.
I will be making myself a pirate outfit too. Because I must confess that I have always dreamed of dressing up as a pirate ever since I was a girl. Every year our small town would have a parade, and the mayor of a large town a couple of hours from us would make a point of going to the parades of all the towns anywhere within a days drive of his town, just to dress like a pirate and sit in the back of a convertible and yell at the kids "Yarrr kiddies...throw your candy into my car!". His name was Frank Ney, and when he died in 1992 after leading a too-short, but very colourful life, his obituary included the information that "he liked dressing up like a pirate". I always wanted to be like Frank Ney...bold enough to dress like a pirate whenever I wanted to, and yell things at kids to make them giggle. All the while doing good things for my community and fellow human beings (he served as mayor of his town for ages and was responsible for making it a tourist attraction rather than a down-and-out former coal mining town).
So, this Hallowe'en I am sewing myself a totally groovy and elegant pirate outfit, complete with lace jabot and those pirate-type boots. I also bought myself a great velvet pirate hat and fake parrot and sword, and I will go trick or treating with my girls, yelling at the other trick-or-treaters "Yarr kiddies...throw your snickers bars into my bucket" (and so on and so forth). My husband is worried I might get arrested. I hope I do (if only because it would make an interesting story "you know, I was once arrested for impersonating a pirate in public").
I may just wear that pirate outfit on other days too. Just for fun.
And in my obituary, I want it to say Absinthe led a (perhaps) too-short and colourful life, she did a lot to better her community and the sciences, and oh yeah, she liked dressing up like a pirate.
Yarrr maties.
