Cutting Up with Costumes

 
LUCY BURDETTE:  I think my love of costumes must date back to the time I watched my parents waddle down the road to a Halloween party dressed as corn stalks, with carved pumpkins over their faces. Though I don't remember my childhood costumes, since the moment I learned to sew, I made my own.

Here's one of my favorites ever, Kermit the frog. You're not seeing the little webbed hands and feet that I also made to go along with the costume. I had a marvelous Wonder Woman (which I can no longer fit into so will not demonstrate) and a Marilyn Monroe complete with blond wig and sparkling evening dress. And here's a photo from my nephew's wedding just this past weekend...with my brother and one of my sisters...

 

Lucky for me, I will be spending Halloween this year in Key West. Fantasyfest involves an entire week of Halloween activities, some XXX rated, which I will not report on. I know that I will be riding in the zombie bike parade. I already have an appointment for my face painting and have the spooky tutu that will go with. And I would not miss the tutu party with my pals. 
And some of you probably remember the wiener dog parade from last year. The truth is, I have no shame...

How about you Reds, a yen for costumes? Any wonderful memories from your costume history?

HALLIE EPHRON: I confess, I'm costume-challenged. My go-to costume as a kid was "bum." Baggy pants, dirty shirt from my dad, and old hat, and voila. My daughters made costumes for themselves every Halloween, mostly with minimal help from me on costume and their dad on makeup. Here's what my youngest did with a red cocktail dress we bought at a rummage sale, a few props, and charcoal makeup. 



LUCY: That's brilliant Hallie!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Oh, I am totally costume-challenged!  I can't sew, and I seem to have no imagination in that department. I'll miss Halloween this year as I'll be doing a college event, but maybe next year I'll get my daughter to help me. She always has great costumes, and I'd love to dress up as something fun, or have zombie make-up. Ideas welcome!

RHYS BOWEN: I love dressing up, but not to the extent of actually sewing things. When my kids were small I did make costumes. I remember daughter Clare wanting to be a tree one year. Lots of burlap and glue gun involved. But luckily as soon as they were in school there was pressure to buy this year's popular costumes. Always good fairies, Disney princesses and never anything scary. When they were teens they invented creative costumes on their own. Clare, always creative once went to a party as Harry Potter, carrying her baby son as Dobby, with a sock pinned to him!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I love the Dobby idea! Fabulous.  It's a challenge for me to think of something for me and Jonathan to do together. Because he has the built-in beard, which narrows the possibilities, right?  And one of my triumphs (If I do say so,) was the year we went as the Arcs.   I was Joan, and Jonathan was Noah.

The next year I didn't have time to come up with something too new, so we added cowboy hats and bandanas to the exact same costumes, and went as Noah and Joan of Arkansas. 

Playing Cops and Robbers

LUCY BURDETTE: When I first met my stepson, he was going through a phase of police adoration. Most days, he wore a miniature police uniform with his name sewn over the pocket. He carried a pretend radio with him everywhere and talked to his pretend police officer colleagues. He was four and it was all very cute.

My husband thinks I'm going through a similar phase, only I'm, ahem,  quite a few years older. Maybe it's not quite so adorable? All he can do is shake his head.

You probably read last Wednesday that I'm attending the Key West Citizens Police Academy, which I find fascinating. Having published ten mysteries in the last ten years, you'd think I knew this stuff, right? 

Wrong. 

Of course, I interviewed experts when I wrote myself into a corner, asking questions like "Would a golf tournament continue if a dead body was found on the course?" 

Or I'd call my friend Steve Torrence, the community liaison officer for KWPD, and get a general idea of what real cops would do in certain situations.  

But all in all, I fell into the camp of if you don't know something about police procedure, make it up.


 But now I'm obsessed with the details.

In our citizens academy, we had a session led by Chief Donie Lee about the particular challenges of "protecting Paradise"--the large homeless population, the enormous influx of tourists (3 million visitors a year!), the wild and crazy events like Fantasyfest and Spring Break and New Year's Eve on Duval Street.  

We learned to do traffic stops and DUI investigations. (Yes, that's me with the fake pink gun.) When we came upon the aftermath of a terrible accident early Friday morning, I was able to explain to John what the officers were measuring and why.



In another session, we donned purple gloves and looked for clues in a crime scene that two of the department detectives had set up for us. On Friday, I took one of the detectives to lunch and got what I hope will be a great idea for my plot-in-progress, based on what she called her "white whale." In this case, the one that got away was the brazen theft of a gold bar that had been discovered in a wreck.  You can see the video of the theft from the Mel Fisher Museum right here.

And best of all, I had a ride-along with Officer Ryan, including several traffic stops and a trip to the jail with a very drunk woman, under the auspices of the Marchman act.

I don't think I'd make it as a real police officer though. I don't like dangerous situations. And I'm not great at confronting people. And I like to be in bed by ten:).

But it's still fun to imagine...

Do you have a career you'd like to try out if you had the chance?