Published: October 24, 2009 11:41 pm      

MICHELE M. BENDER | Costumes can be tricky

Perhaps you’ve noticed; winter has arrived before Halloween.

My mom made it her mission in life to keep me warm.

My first costume ever was a white sheet with eyes cut out, under which I wore a warm coat for Trick or Treat. Toasty ghosty!

Mom could sew, and movies inspired her.

In 1956, she dressed me as a pilgrim after we saw “Friendly Persuasion,” a Gary Cooper flick about Quakers during the Civil War.

In 1957, we saw “Sayonara.” Mom made me a geisha that October.

Both my pilgrim cape and geisha robe amply concealed my winter coat. A pilgrim bonnet and an Oriental wig purchased at Woolworth’s kept my head warm.

Some neighborhoods have higher Trick or Treat traffic than others. In my old neighborhood, I’d purchase 10 bags of 20 snack-size candy bars and find my supply exhausted by 7:30.

One year I spent Halloween with my friend Sharon in Harrisburg. On Trick or Treat Eve, we scooped bulk candy into 80 little orange bags.

“Do you get many kids?” I asked.

“This will last,” she told me. “We’ll probably have some left over.”

That night, a deluge of children stormed Sharon’s door. We had to close up at 6:45.

We learned later that Eric, Sharon’s son who was 10, told his school pals that she’d put a $10 bill in one of the bags!

Some of the best costume parties I ever threw weren’t at Halloween at all. Marilyn Monroe’s birthday, June 1, has always been a holiday at my house. In 1996, it fell on a warm Saturday with a full moon.

“Celebrate Marilyn’s 70th birthday,” my invitation read.

“Dress as your favorite movie character or celebrity. Come to Michele’s and watch the stars come out.”

My friends’ ingenuity amazed me.

One neighbor came in a dress shirt, tie, Dockers and a tool belt as “Tim the toolman Taylor.” A bearded neighbor wore flannel and jeans and came as Al Borland.

Friends Buck and Suzy from Altoona donned yellow slickers to be Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds from “Singin’ In The Rain.”

But the ultimate showstopper was galpal Marlene.

Everyone knows the classic scene in “Gone With The Wind” where impoverished Scarlett O’Hara rips green velvet curtains off the wall and fashions a gown from them.

A classic Carol Burnett skit, “Went With The Wind,” featured Carol as Scarlett doing just that, but leaving the curtain rod IN!

“I saw this in a window and just HAD to have it!” Carol babbled.

Marlene lived eight houses down the street from me. That evening, she walked to the party in her gown WITH curtain rod. In June. In DAYLIGHT!

Needless to say, she won the prize for best costume.

What was the prize? A bamboo “Seven Year Itch” back scratcher, of course!