The Dumbest Halloween Costume

Let me take you back to my childhood.  It was either 1984 or 1985, I can't quite remember.  This was before the internet.  Heck, it was before most of my neighborhood had basic cable.  It was a period in time where AM/FM radio was just as important as television.

I have written before that I was not allowed to go trick or treating during my childhood.  In fact, here is the original post:

How a Few Jackholes Ruined Halloween For My Entire Childhood

However, the day care that I attended held it's own Halloween party where we (the kids at the day care) were allowed to dress up.  They would give us candy, and Mr. Betsch, the co-owner, would take us for tractor rides around the property.  We would also get to march around the property while dressed up.

They were really nice and caring when it came to taking care of the kids.  They threw a lot of special events.  I really looked forward to this since it was pretty much the only Halloween I got.  It's also where I received most of my candy for the Halloween season.  Not that I needed that much candy.  I was a touch overweight as a kid.

So when it came to dressing up for Halloween I was pretty terrible at it.  I didn't have the experience, and in the 80's store bought costumes pretty much sucked.  A few years ago I remember one guy had an Angelfire or GeoCities website with old photos of vintage costumes.  I was glad to see I remembered it correctly.  They were just awful.

So in 1984 or 1985 I was trying to think of a Halloween costume.  I was also trying to work with what I had, which wasn't much.  I remember thinking how much I liked music.  So did I dress up as Bruce Springsteen, "Born in the USA," era?  Maybe Sting from "The Police?"  No, remember we still didn't have basic cable, so I didn't know what any of those guys looked like.  But you know which music icon I was familiar with?  Famous Top 40 DJ Casey Kasem.

That's right, Casey Kasem.  There's always been a joke that DJ's have the perfect face for radio.  In other words, no one actually knows what they look like.  That leads to the question, "How does one dress like Casey Kasem?"  The one thing I knew was that he liked wearing sweaters. 

Lot's of sweaters.

Plenty of sweaters.

Very colorful sweaters.

You could say he might have raided Bill Cosby's closet he liked sweaters so much.

So I wore a button up shirt, attached a clip on tie, and pulled on a sweater.  Perfect Casey right?  Except I should have worn a name tag.  Why?  Because no one had a clue who I was dressing up as.  I could have been a college professor.  I could have been, well... so many things.

I have to say I did not think that one through.  I try not to be too hard on myself since I was nine or ten, but why would anyone recognize me?  Casey was on the radio.  It's not like many of the kids knew what he looked like.  In fact, I doubt any of them had any idea what Casey looked like.  

I really could have done better.  But it's not like I ever went costume shopping.  Why would I?  I wasn't exactly going trick or treating around the neighborhood.  So, I did the best I could, but it was still pretty awful.  I guess that's life.  That's also life experience.  

It reminds me of one of my favorite sayings.  "Good judgement comes from experience.  Experience comes from bad judgement."