I recently discovered this photo wedged into an old book that had been found in moldy garage which was being cleared out. I have no idea who the book belonged to nor who is depicted in the picture. On the back of the photo are these handwritten words:
Prince - Bob
Alice in Wonderland - Kay
Red Riding Hood - Dotty
Cinderella - Judy
Prince - Tommy
Snow White - Ann
Photo by Jerry Hazen
The picture was so vivid (click on it to see the full-size extra-vivid version) and so poignantly captured another era that I thought it deserved to be brought back to life 58 years later.
Things are a little different now. Halloween 1951, meet Halloween 2009.
(”Jerry Hazen” was apparently not a member of the family but was rather a professional photographer brought in to take pictures at a kids’ costume party. The Internet being the amazing thing that it is, I discovered after one minute of searching that Jerry Hazen also had the “Picture of the Week” published in the July 30, 1951 isssue of Life Magazine, showing a mouse nibbling an ear of corn in front of a picture of a mouse nibbling the same ear of corn [click the link for an explanation and see the image]. The Halloween photo above was taken just a few months afterward.)
(Note: This is not a photo of me, but rather
1CattusMagnus on Oct 29, 2009 at 11:16 pm:
Adorable. You’d never get little boys now-a-days to dress up in tights like that!
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2zombie on Oct 29, 2009 at 11:35 pm:
True. Nowadays, they dress up like this.
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3CattusMagnus on Oct 29, 2009 at 11:52 pm:
Ick. I’d like to see that guy try and run in that costume. My costume is so much more tasteful: Anne Boleyn (my date is the executioner).
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4Kini on Oct 30, 2009 at 12:28 am:
True. Nowadays, they dress up like this.
Well, I just don’t know where my head is these days,
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5Starless on Oct 30, 2009 at 5:49 am:
Those are some very nice costumes. Those kids must’ve had rich parents.
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6Throbert McGee on Oct 30, 2009 at 6:59 am:
Even back then there must’ve been significant bribery involving promises of a BB gun or a wind-up spark-spitting robot or whatever boys of that age would’ve been jazzed about in 1951. (Note that each girl gets to have a separate identity, while the boys are “Prince” and “Prince” — they’re basically there as accessories for the girls’ photo shoot.)
P.S. The glower on Snow White’s face reminded me of the “Kallikak” photos…
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7zmdavid on Oct 30, 2009 at 8:04 am:
Those boys don’t look anything like Prince!
(sometimes comments almost write themselves)
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8Incognito on Oct 30, 2009 at 8:09 am:
Thank you Zombie for posting this picture of yesteryear! I think it captures the innocence of America back then!!
I went to Street Fair in downtown yesterday and they had Halloween theme with kids doing trick or treating. Some kids were dressed as princesses but majority were dressed in scary costumes or witches. I thought it was a reflection of today’s culture. Culture of death.
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9Ringo the Gringo on Oct 30, 2009 at 8:12 am:
I liked Halloween so much better when it was a holiday for children.
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10Ringo the Gringo on Oct 30, 2009 at 8:22 am:
My daughter is ‘Belle’ from Beauty and the Beast…She just left for school looking very much like Judy in the picture above.
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11stuiec on Oct 30, 2009 at 10:30 am:
In the past, my daughters had Alice in Wonderland and Snow White costumes. One year they had mermaid costumes (my wife is an ambitious seamstress when it comes to costumes).
This year the older two are well beyond trick-or-treating, so if they dress up at college I am sure it will be in something suitably outrageous. The youngest isn’t trick-or-treating, but she did get a yellow t-shirt and ironed on Dubble Bubble logos front and back so that she can be a piece of gum for Halloween.
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12Starless on Oct 30, 2009 at 11:11 am:
Model jet airplanes or a really awesome cap gun. I imagine both boys would’ve preferred to dress up as cowboys, though the one on the far right looks okay with it. The one on the far left looks constipated.
As is the case with winter dance photos, prom photos, wedding photos, and etc.
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13doppelganglander on Oct 30, 2009 at 11:36 am:
I’ll bet they were sewn by their mothers. My grandmother could sew outfits more elaborate than that for dolls.
When my kids were small, I steered them away from scary monster and witch costumes. In various years, they went as a cops, cowboys/girls, a coal miner (my son loved the flashlight headband), a unicorn, Barney, a fairy princess, etc. The best was the year my son went as the blue Power Ranger - the show was so new we couldn’t buy a costume, and I can’t sew, so he just wore anything we could find that was blue, plus face paint.
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14beckaholic on Oct 30, 2009 at 12:03 pm:
I was in a really sweet place (Awww…) looking at those cute costumes, admiring all the sewing that went into them and remembering the doozies my Mom would whip up for us when we were little, which she loved doing and of course, we hated wearing. The good old days, so much fun.
Then I clicked on the Camel-Toe Twins…….It all went POOF!
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15Ringo the Gringo on Oct 30, 2009 at 12:21 pm:
Here’s another glimpse from another era, this one is of Halloween in Los Angeles, 1948…In the center you can see girl wearing a costume that you definitely won’t see these days - Aunt Jemima.
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16Ringo the Gringo on Oct 30, 2009 at 12:22 pm:
Forgot the link: http://creepyla.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/kidswaving.jpg
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17zombie on Oct 30, 2009 at 12:36 pm:
I’m of two minds about this.
On one hand, scenes of Halloween past are so sweet and innocent, when it was a holiday just for kids, that it makes one nostalgic for an era which (at least in my case) long predated my birth. Now that Halloween has become mostly an adult holiday, it seems degraded, sexualized, grungy and sleazy. I made the mistake of once going to the Exotic Erotic Ball (not to document it but rather as an actual particpant, for “fun”), and it turned out to be a very unpleasant scene — an overpriced gigantic “party” filled with creepy sweaty loser dudes trying to snap pictures of and grope slutty, off-putting good-time girls. Everyone was drunk or stoned, the music was too loud, the floor was covered with barf, everyone seemed to be a seething petri dish of STDs — all in all, an event to avoid. Last time I’m going to that, for sure.
On the other hand…
Every society needs a good “blow off steam” day. The best and most famous of these was Saturnalia, the winter solstice feast of Saturn on the official Roman calendar, when most rules of the social order were not just suspended, but reversed. Hence, masters were expected to serve their slaves, unmarried upper-class girls could kiss and flirt without punishment, people could insult their superiors with no consequences, and everyone could wear informal clothes in the street — not exactly like costumes in the modern sense, but as close to the concept of the Halloween costume as the Romans ever got. Oh, and everyone got drunk.
Other societies had and have different days. In Italy, the Caribbean and South America they of course go wild at the beginning of Lent — Carnival — while some “blow-off-steam” festivals were more localized, like Guy Fawkes Night in some English cities and various matsuri specific to certain Japanese towns. There are many other examples as well — May Day in pre-Christian pagan tribes, Sadie Hawkins Day, etc.
The Unites States has never had an official (or even unofficial) day of this type — I’m speaking of something that’s not just a general “holiday,” but a day on which you can throw off the shackles of convention and social custom and break all the rules without fear of consequences. All our normal holidays like July 4, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. are generally happy and congenial, but still held within the framework of standard social strictures.
Sure, there are local ones –Mardi Gras in New Orleans, “Spring Break” in various resort towns — but no generalized modern American version of Saturnalia.
Until now, that is.
I think Halloween over the last five or ten years has developed and is continuing to develop into our contemporary Saturnalia. You can do wild and crazy shit on Halloween that you can’t do on any other day — especially in the big cities (I assume that in small towns Halloween is still more traditional and for kids).
And I sorta think that’s a good thing, because sacred cows need tipping and stifling social rules need the occasional popping. But of course, it’s not always turning out the way that the social revolutionaries expected. Because not only are people allowed to dress and act like hookers and get intoxicated and run wild — in other words rebel against the traditional moralist social structure — but they’re also rebelling against the New PC Puritans who forbid any expression of “incorrect” attitudes. Which is why there has been such an explosion in popularity of supposed mildly “racist” costumes which are infuriating the lefty bluenoses — e.g. the “Illegal Alien” costume withdrawn from Target or the “prototyptical Mexican with a big Zapata mustache” costume that’s caused a ruckus, and so forth. C’mon, people, that’s what Halloween is for — to do racy (not racist, but racy) things that would otherwise be forbidden. And in the 21st century sexuality is no longer very forbidden — what’s forbidden are un-PC attitudes. People need at least one day of the year to thrown of the mental shackles of the Thought Police and just poke fun at society.
So, I both cringe at and celebrate the modern manifestation of Halloween.
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18zombie on Oct 30, 2009 at 12:45 pm:
#15 + #16Ringo the Gringo;
Nice photo, and a good companion piece to the photo I discovered!
Seems like being a pirate was the trendy costume for boys in 1948.
And yes, that girl dressed as Aunt Jemima would definitely end up sitting in the prinicpal’s office if she went to school these days dressed like that, and her parents would probably be charged with a hate crime of some sort.
Note also behind her is a boy dressed with a big sombrero and a mustache — oops, another hate crime charge in 2009 America.
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19Ringo the Gringo on Oct 30, 2009 at 12:49 pm:
Just back from my daughter’s Halloween parade at her pre-school, and I’m happy to report that pirate costumes are still popular with the boys.
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20buzzsawmonkey on Oct 30, 2009 at 1:25 pm:
The only adults to whom Halloween used to be important was homosexuals, as that was the day that one was immune from being arrested for being in drag.
In consequence, there were usually many drag balls held on Halloween–up through the mid-late ’70s, anyway. It may still be true today.
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21zombie on Oct 30, 2009 at 1:50 pm:
20buzzsawmonkey
West Hollywood still has their huge gay-themed drag/costume parade/party every Halloween, just as in the ’70s.
However, the one in SF’s Castro District has been permanently officially “cancelled” (i.e. the city will no longer issue permits for it or block off streets) because starting around five years ago gang members with guns showed up every Halloween and usually ended up shooting themselves or some bystander. In other words it wasn’t cancelled due to any political considerations or “moral” issues, but rather because the “Castro Halloween” became a major crime magnet. I went the year before the first big shooting, and it already was totally out of control — what seemed like half a million people, only about 20% of whom were actually gay, the rest being college students and gang members and teenagers and couples on dates just drunken lowlifes packed together with about 2,000 professional pickpockets and 5,000 schizophrenic hoboes. It was like, GET ME OUT OF HERE! I had gone a couple times in years past when it was more about appreciating the parade of crazy drag costumes people would sashay around in, but by the mid-2000s it was ruined by its own popularity. People still flock there “unofficially,” but the police try to shoo people away to prevent it from reaching the boiling point.
Anyway, those are the only two ’70s-vintage gay Halloween events I’ve been to personally — don’t know about the rest of the country.
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22CattusMagnus on Oct 30, 2009 at 2:14 pm:
Urgghh. I hate this. If you aren’t gifted with a needle and thread, like myself, all that the non-plus-sized women have to choose from are “sexy” costumes. “Sexy Little Red Riding Hood,” “Sexy Ragdoll,” “Sexy Vampire” etc. WTF? They even managed to sexualize bee and ladybug costumes with push-up bodices, garter belts and thigh high fishnets. I almost bought a full coverage, giant carrot costume in protest.
I know! It’s sad that the boys didn’t get a seperate identity. Maybe their parents were just too goodytwoshoes to let them be anything dark/scary/violent and made them just accompany the girls in their fairytale theme. It looks like they gave them Peter Pan shoes though.
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23Render on Oct 30, 2009 at 3:30 pm:
Did anybody else read further into the Jerry Hazen link? All kinds of historically interesting things and names in there.
RELEVANCE,
R
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24Starless on Oct 30, 2009 at 4:23 pm:
But Cinderella and Snow White had to each have their own Prince Charming. Better to be Prince Valium, IMO.
Among them all, Alice has to be the most interesting if the girl could quote dialogue from the book(s).
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25MikalM on Oct 30, 2009 at 4:32 pm:
Zombie, you pretty much summed up my feelings in #17. Halloween has become something of an American Saturnalia, where the normal rules are suspended and people can let off steam in the form of sexy costumes, drinking, PC-nose-thumbing, etc. Too, it’s replaced the old Masquerade Balls or costume parties of our grandparents’ time, when grownups could indulge fantasy identities for a night.
Re the Castro: Yes, it’s a shame what happened. But there’s a flash-mob-style group in SF that’s trying to revive the old street party spirit at Saturday’s “Take Back Halloween” event; you might want to drop on by for some pix:
http://www.flashdance.org/hw/Halloween2009.html
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26Redbear on Oct 31, 2009 at 4:57 am:
Yes - Totally fascinating. Lots of beer, liquor and cigarette advertisements in 1951 - Ah - remember freedom.
And pages 23-24 - has a nice story about Iran, and how the US envoy was shunned - apparently Iran didn’t like the US in 1951 either. That story and the next one on page 25 - “Sudden Death Governs Middle East” - could easily be a current event. Shocker.
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27Starless on Oct 31, 2009 at 5:37 am:
I really question the Saturnalia theory. This rogues’ gallery is the sort of thing which makes me think Halloween has become less about flipping social convention on its ear and more about people who are already douchebags in every day life having an excuse to be even bigger douchebags. Less, “I’m going to go crazy and let off steam because I’m usually so straight-laced,” and more, “I’m going to dress up as a penis, get totally wasted, and then post the pics on MySpace the next day. It’ll be just like it was when I was an undergrad and I’ll be as hilarious as Dane Cook”.
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28Don-Quixote on Oct 31, 2009 at 9:46 am:
Zombie #17
I agree with most of what you posted, and like you I also appreciate the costumes that the “lefty bluenoses” are crying foul over. The left just has no sense of humor at all. A quote that I think sums up the moral do gooders of the left:
— C. S. LEWIS
However on your second point it seems like almost every holiday including Halloween is simply a chance for most in our country today to get drunk and stupid. Heck every Friday/Saturday night there is enough people getting zonked to give an outsider the impression that some Bacchus feast had come to pass. I wish that we had more holidays that were about kids being kids and not some quasi adult/adolescent sexualized mish mash that Halloween has become.
The fifties had its share of problems but kids were still allowed to be kids. The picture captures that. Thanks for sharing.
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29Starless on Oct 31, 2009 at 10:33 am:
I’ll revise what I said at #27 to say that maybe what we’re seeing now is more of a demographic shift. Twenty-five years ago, I don’t know if there would have been less debauchery (and risque costumes) among adults, but that debauchery would have taken place some time in the week or two prior to Halloween and Halloween night was more-or-less reserved for kids. Now people are waiting longer to have families so they don’t have to worry about dealing with kids on Halloween night if they don’t want to.
That being said, I still stand by my douchebag analysis.
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30Ringo the Gringo on Oct 31, 2009 at 8:47 pm:
Just back from taking my little daughter out trick-or-treating. One house down the street was handing out pocket-sized copies of the US Constitution to the kiddies…along with the candy.
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31wolfie on Nov 1, 2009 at 12:23 am:
How could they have known when that snapshot was taken that it would one day move strangers to such reveries?!
My kids have outgrown the trick-or-treating stage, alas!
My teenaged boys spent the evening at the VA hospital helping out with their Halloween party. They ended up playing poker for candy corn with a bunch of crusty WWII and Korean War vets.
My 17 yr old, I fear, was wiped out, but the 14 yr old came home with a whole bucket of the stuff.
Ringo- That Constitution idea is very clever, not to mention downright subversive!
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32Pablo on Nov 1, 2009 at 11:32 am:
Yes. 3 year old Al Gore was a bit of a surprise.
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33Throbert McGee on Nov 1, 2009 at 12:10 pm:
The West Village Halloween parade in NYC is similarly huge, and also arguably a victim of its own success — way too crowded, to the point where it’s difficult to move around (as at many Manhattan parades). I attended (as a non-costumed onlooker) one year when I was living in NYC, but after that stayed far away, and just watched the coverage on local news channels. (The TV news doesn’t necessary show the more sexually overt and/or blasphemous costumes, and predictably there are some in both categories, but there would be excellent coverage of all the other stuff, and the parade was famous for the sheer inventiveness as well as the elaborate engineering and Broadway-level “production values” of a lot of the costumes.)
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34stuiec on Nov 1, 2009 at 12:26 pm:
Better than what the Obamanoids in Alaska were doing:
Who’s going to earn more long-term recruits for the cause: the conservative giving out the Constitution with a king-size Milky Way, or the Progressive giving out the Obamacare flyer with a bag of carrot sticks?
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35zombie on Nov 1, 2009 at 2:40 pm:
As I suspected, the Castro “unofficial” party last night small and tame. After several years in a row of stabbings and shootings, average people are now just too afraid to go anymore.
In protest, one of the biggest “flash mob” organizers announced a “take back Halloween” event on the Embarcadero (the other side of town from the Castro), which was similarly mediocore. However, there was one outstanding costume troupe in SF last night:
The Death Panel.
I don’t even know what side of the debate those guys were on — it’s a memorable costume either way. The modern manifestation of the sickle-wielding figure of Death.
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36Starless on Nov 1, 2009 at 4:44 pm:
We can only hope Organizing for Obama keeps coming up with genius ideas like this one. “Oh, man, the Johnsons gave me an eggplant and a piece of paper that says something about being a single payer, whatever that means… Go get the eggs and the toilet paper.”
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37Throbert McGee on Nov 1, 2009 at 5:49 pm:
When I lived in Moscow in the early ’90s, I went to a Halloween party at an American-owned bar, dressed as “Red Square” — in a black turtleneck with a large square of red fabric sewn onto the chest, plus a little cardboard model of Lenin’s tomb on one sleeve, and packages of chewing gum on the other (a visual pun that only English-speakers would get, representing the Soviet-era department store G.U.M.), and this mask.
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38Maria on Nov 1, 2009 at 9:46 pm:
I’m sad to say that I saw no sexy warthog costumes this Halloween.
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39stuiec on Nov 2, 2009 at 12:04 pm:
Does a warthog need a costume to be sexy? They have eight nipples, after all.
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40Pablo on Nov 2, 2009 at 3:51 pm:
Speaking of the Halloween in the Village: Zombies for Obama
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41Starless on Nov 2, 2009 at 4:53 pm:
Donna Shalala has eight nipples? Wow. I did not know that.
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42stuiec on Nov 2, 2009 at 8:23 pm:
Cool! Zobambies!
Rarely does one see such a display of political honesty.
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43Ken on Nov 2, 2009 at 8:39 pm:
Absolute genius. How did it go over?
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44Throbert McGee on Nov 2, 2009 at 8:48 pm:
Wow, people making fun of Obama in the Village! My faith in humanity just went up a notch.
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45Starless on Nov 3, 2009 at 6:28 am:
Don’t get your hopes up too high. At some point you know the bi-coastal art community will co-opt this and make it all hip and ironic — IOW, didactic and predictable.
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46JamesTKirk on Nov 3, 2009 at 7:09 am:
http://i.imgur.com/6B1Ln.jpg
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47Dianna on Nov 3, 2009 at 2:37 pm:
*Sigh.*
You know what’s making me sad? You think that taking a holiday as an excuse to get drunk is something other than what the majority of the human race has always done. Not two decades ago, if you dropped into any small town in Ireland on a Saturday night, all of the men and the unmarried girls would be falling down drunk in the street. The married women would be at home, possibly falling down drunk, but at home, in any case.
This is what most of the human race has done with its free time.
Stop getting all sniffy! Get some historical perspective!
As to whoever was complaining about dark and scary costumes indicating a culture of death - get a grip. When I was a kid (b. 1963), costumes ranged from fairies and princesses to axes in the head. Lots of witches, lots of Frankensteins and Draculas. And robots, come to think of it.
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48MikalM on Nov 3, 2009 at 4:36 pm:
#47 Dianna
Q: What’s the difference between an Irish wedding and an Irish wake?
A: One less drunk!
(sorry, couldn’t resist…)
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49Dianna on Nov 4, 2009 at 1:49 pm:
That rather wry observation fits my experience.
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50Ringo the Gringo on Nov 4, 2009 at 4:05 pm:
Well, since this thread seems to have fizzled out, I’ll take the opportunity to pimp my website.
The Tea Party Express Visits Los Angeles…
http://www.ringospictures.com/index.php?page=20091025
Go on, have a look.
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51stuiec on Nov 4, 2009 at 9:59 pm:
Well, there really isn’t one less, is there? The one is still there, still as pickled, but just not breathing.
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52CattusMagnus on Nov 4, 2009 at 10:28 pm:
#50 Ringo the Gringo,
Good report. Nice to see that they kept it classy.
“Let’s be very honest about what this is about. It’s not about bashing Democrats, it’s not about taxes, they have no idea what the Boston tea party was about, they don’t know their history at all. This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up”. - Janeane Garofalo
Half black Janeane. Half. Just imagine the hate if he was all black!
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53Starless on Nov 5, 2009 at 5:26 am:
You forget that to Progressives, the black half is the only half that matters. Kind of like a country club a few decades ago or an organization that has three Ks in its name.
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54buzzsawmonkey on Nov 5, 2009 at 7:55 am:
#50 Ringo the Gringo: Very interesting, very nicely done.
The pre-emptive condemnations of Janeane Garofalo and her ilk are merely an expression of leftist hipster bigotry, which has, in its own mind, such a firm grasp on “truth” that it has no need of mere facts.
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55Ringo the Gringo on Nov 5, 2009 at 8:54 am:
CattusMagnus,
“Half black Janeane. Half. Just imagine the hate if he was all black!”
Garofalo is half black?…I had no idea. And I’m not sure I understand your point either.
I think Janeane Garofalo’s hatred has nothing whatsoever to do with her ethnicity and everything to do with the fact that she’s a dim-witted Hollywood clown who lives in a bubble.
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56stuiec on Nov 5, 2009 at 9:59 am:
I can see it now: the sensational best-selling children’s book of 2010: “Sarah Palin and the Half-Black President.”
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57Incognito on Nov 5, 2009 at 10:27 am:
Ringo, nice job on the Photo Journalism on the Tea Party. Confirms with what Zombie saw in San Francisco. Posted it on my Facebook. Ma Sands was asking about you…
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58Ringo the Gringo on Nov 5, 2009 at 11:21 am:
CattusMagnus,
Ahhh, Obama is half black. I misunderstood your comment. I thought you were saying that Garofalo was half black.
Please disregard my previous reply.
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59Ringo the Gringo on Nov 5, 2009 at 11:22 am:
Incognito,
Thanks.
Hi to Ma Sands.
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60Starless on Nov 5, 2009 at 12:48 pm:
“Newt Gingrich and the Chamber of RINOs”
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61beckaholic on Nov 5, 2009 at 5:21 pm:
It’s weird. I don’t hate Barack Obama, but I’m pretty sure I hate Janeane Garafolo.
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62Don-Quixote on Nov 5, 2009 at 5:58 pm:
Dianna #47
You miss the point, Halloween used to be about kids, not adults. I think they was at least partially Zombies point. I have nothing against people getting drunk and stupid especially on holidays where getting drunk and stupid was an essential part of the Holiday experience (New Years) however my point is that people are getting drunk, wasted and stupid any chance they can get. Now I am not against any of those things, to a certain extent but it is pretty sad to see so many people’s entire lives essentially revolve around a sudsy bleary-eyed existense.
The last time I checked the end all be all of human existense was not to see how many times you could get stupid drunk in your life. But maybe thats just me.
Btw I am an Irish descendant. We are FAR from teetotallers. As for the villages of Ireland, maybe joining the PC European Union has something to do with less fun in the country. Pure speculation on my part.
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63Starless on Nov 6, 2009 at 5:31 am:
If watch her stand-up routine you’ll probably come to a more firm conclusion.
What’s more entertaining? Michael Richards making an ass of himself trying to do stand-up, or Janeane Garofalo’s rambling Leftist diatribe from scribblings on a legal pad disguised as comedy? You decide.
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64Maria on Nov 6, 2009 at 10:37 am:
The danger of playing the “it used to be” game is that at some point you have to draw the line of how far in the past you’re going to go back and then once there you have to decided which bits of it you’re going to look at.
We can say that it used to be that wearing costumes and masks had much to do with the belief that the evil spirits crossing over wouldn’t be able to recognize you and harm you. We could also mention that going door to door collecting token food is theorized to have been a clever way to make sure that everyone in the village was going to be able to at least survive the coming winter. And we could even say that “Halloween” as it used to be known has been turned into another toothless celebration for children what with our societies fixation on trick or treating for mass produced junkfood at the expense of all other seasonal traditions associated with the end of October…
Children and adults have always participated in celebrations differently, that is what makes them children and adults.
As an aside, warthogs have 6 nipples?? Hell.. all you need is a warthog costume and pasties and your sexy warthog costume is complete. Sexy sexy warthog… Time to get sewing for next year.
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65Zimriel on Nov 6, 2009 at 5:34 pm:
Halloween now has become what April Fool’s used to be. It’s a day when “the normal rules do not apply”. People dress up as what they want to mock. And yes, they get drunk and stupid.
Western civilisation probably needs such a holiday. Now that April Fool’s has become a day for mere pranksters that day is used up. So the Carnival-Of-Follies people just migrated to Halloween…
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66Troy on Nov 6, 2009 at 8:12 pm:
I always felt that black and white photos, just like black & white movies and TV shows - were always the best.
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67Starless on Nov 7, 2009 at 6:43 am:
If the game is a way for older generations to talk about how those damn kids have ruined everything, then yeah, it’s just an exercise in selective memory and nostalgia. But if it’s a way to see where we’ve gone and how we got there by looking at the past, it has some value. Of course, that depends on how selective you decide to be with your memory.
Hmmm, that almost sounds like we could be talking about identity politics.
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68stuiec on Nov 7, 2009 at 11:14 am:
As selective as this?
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69Bakunin on Nov 7, 2009 at 1:27 pm:
Maria: The danger of playing the “it used to be” game is that at some point you have to draw the line of how far in the past you’re going to go back and then once there you have to decided which bits of it you’re going to look at.
When this photo was taken, segregation, Jim Crow, and lynching was the norm in a large part of the country. But hey, at least they didn’t dress up like penises!
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70kim molner on Nov 8, 2009 at 9:09 am:
Love that picture, costumes have no soul anymore.
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71Starless on Nov 8, 2009 at 2:18 pm:
A classic.
One of the things I really enjoyed about the recent IFC Python documentary was hearing Terry Gilliam go on about “right wingers”.
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72Guy Average on Nov 9, 2009 at 10:00 pm:
Zombie:
This is OT but I wanted to let you know: I was at the “House Call” in Washington DC on November 5th. I saw Medea Benjamin there (never would have recognized her except that I read Zombietime). I snapped a couple of pics of her. When I snapped her pic I said “I’ve seen you on Zombietime”. I wish you could have seen her expression…had I been anticipating that, I would have snapped a pic of that as well. Thanks for the education, Zombie!
I posted the pics at Guy Average if you want to check them out.
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73Bakunin on Nov 10, 2009 at 2:23 pm:
It’s a shame that “Guy Average” didn’t take any pictures of Teabaggers comparing the healthcare bill to the Holocaust. You know, the one reportedly directly in front of the podium and visible to every politician or pundit who spoke at Michele Bachmann’s event?
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74Bakunin on Nov 10, 2009 at 2:23 pm:
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75Ringo the Gringo on Nov 10, 2009 at 7:37 pm:
A fun website if you like old pictures: http://blackandwtf.tumblr.com/
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76Lover of Halloween on Dec 6, 2009 at 8:47 am:
Very nice photo, thanks for sharing!
Although your comparison photo is far from accurate. You are comparing a group of school aged children in their family’s back yard to a pair of older (late teens, early twenties) people at an adult gathering of some sort. The contrast is amusing, though
I doubt any ten or eleven year old is going to be permitted to wear miss Camel Toe’s costume even in 2009 
I love seeing old photographs, though! Thank you for sharing. Although perhaps you could find a more accurate comparison photo rather than comparing apples to oranges
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