by Tammy Lee Morris

Created on: October 08, 2009

Every little girl dreams of what she will wear on Halloween. Well, maybe not EVERY little girl, but this little girl certainly loved Halloween and planning out her costume every year.
Some years I had store bought costumes and some years there were homemade ones, but the one costume I remember the best was when I was in third grade.
It was 1980 and at that time schools still had Halloween parties and costume contests for the younger students. There were prizes given out each year for the Prettiest Costume, Ugliest Costume and Most Original costume in each class. I don't even remember what the prizes were - probably a gift certificate for an ice cream cone or some candy, but I knew I wanted one.

Every year since kindergarten I had wanted to be chosen for one of those with a best costume.
When I was in third grade my mother suggested an idea for a costume that was quite unique and I was certain it would win Most Original.
She had the idea of using pieces of poster board and poster paints to create a crayon costume. I remember watching her make the costume. She taped two sheets of the blue poster board together to create a large tube - with armholes of course. On this she drew out the word "Crayola" and painted dark blue stripes on it to look like a real crayon.
She cut another piece of the blue poster board to create a cone to be a mask that would slide over my head and create the tip of the crayon. She cut eyeholes in this and then painted it all dark blue.
I was so proud of my costume. The store bought costumes were cheesy plastic jumpers that came with molded thin, plastic masks and were only available in a few character choices. I remember Barbie and Scooby-Doo as well as clowns. The best costumes were the homemade ones.
My crayon costume was beautiful if impractical. Sitting down was not an option and it was long enough that my shins bumped the bottom as I walked, which meant that I needed to walk slowly and carefully or I'd go over in a display of blue glory.
The day of the Halloween party came and I remember I wore a long-sleeved blue blouse that was also homemade. I strutted proudly in the class procession around the school gymnasium. We traipsed past the judges and the rest of the assembled classes and teachers three times during our turn so they could get a good look at all of our costumes before they made their decisions.
Then we stopped marching and stood in the middle of the gym - waiting, anxiously and breathlessly to see which kids were going

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