Halloween in the pre-teen years

My best friend and I went through a HUGE 1920s phase … I’m not sure why it came about. It might have been because we both saw Bugsy Malone, and we wanted to be flappers.

I am in a very very awkward stage of development here. I am … 12? The fangs in my teeth show me that this is pre-braces.

Sadly, my friend and I worked SO HARD on our “flapper costumes”, and the subtlety of all of it was lost on the masses. We even researched the decade, we looked up old fashion magazines of the day, makeup styles of the day, etc.

On Halloween night, we strolled around our old childhood neighborhood, where we had grown up. It would be our last time trick-or-treating, and we knew it … and horror of horrors: everyone thought we were dressed up as “hookers”. We didn’t even know what hookers were. I remember one woman saying, laughing, “Oh, it’s two ladies of the evening!” Again – we had no idea what that was.

We were flappers. We had researched the Prohibition era. We knew about the jazz age. We knew about the cars, the makeup, the pearls … “ladies of the evening”? What’s that?

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7 Responses to Halloween in the pre-teen years

  1. For what it’s worth, I immediately knew it was a flapper costume.

    One Halloween not too long ago, I told a certain woman that her flapper costume wasn’t authentic as she was wearing a bra. She refused to cooperate, however. Some people have no respect for authenticity.

  2. Bernard says:

    If only you’d marcelled your hair. I don’t know many hookers that marcell their hair. (Not that – you realize – I know many hookers.)

  3. red says:

    Scott – why thank you!! I am OBVIOUSLY a flapper, right??

    I am sure I was wearing a bra, but probably one of those little training-bra thingies. My authenticity went only so far.

  4. red says:

    Bernard –

    You know, I don’t even know what that means – although I have read it in books. “Marcelled” hair … what exactly is it? Do hookers still marcel their hair? (From what you’ve heard, anyway … ahem.)

  5. ricki says:

    A Marcel Wave was a type of early permanent, as I understand. It made big, loose waves that ran down the back of the head – I can picture it but can’t adequately describe it. It could actually be quite attractive, lead to looser curls than today’s perms do.

    (I was big into the 1920s when I was a teenager. Had a ‘shingle’ haircut for a while, even. It was not a good look for me.)

    in junior high, we had a “1920s day” as part of American history where you dressed up as someone from the 1920s. The catch was, you had to draw the name out of a hat. So I wound up having to be Marcus Garvey (the back-to-Africa guy) which was NOT FUN. Several years later, my brother drew out “flapper.” I didn’t know whether to laugh at him or be jealous.

    And yes, he did it, short skirt, long string of beads, “headache band” and all. (I don’t THINK he shaved his legs for it but he might have…)

  6. ricki says:

    apparently the Marcel wave started with the Gibson girls:

    linkypoo 1 (scroll down to Gibson Girl)

    linkypoo 2 (a modern Marcel Wave)

  7. Halloween in the pre-teen years

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