Last year for Halloween, we dressed up, but we didn’t go out. This year, we’re all feeling a little more confident and safe about the areas neighboring Whimsieville. In fact, do you know, it’s been months and months since we’ve heard anything that sounds even remotely like a dog? That Mr. Squee sure must be doing his job well! He’s keeping all the dogs far, far away. So this year, we decided to be brace and go out trick- or- treating.
Yes! We have gone out trick or treating! In fact, we just got back. And what a blast it’s been! If I’d known it was going to be this much fun, I would have done everything I could to overcome my silly fear of dogs even sooner than this! But wait, wait…I’m getting way ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning.
I guess the beginning was a few weeks ago, when I let the beans slip (let the cat out of the bag??) that we Whimsies do actually enjoy a bit of sweets now and then. Last year, we were keeping that a secret, so even if we had decided to go trick-or-treating, we wouldn’t have been able to share that with you here, and sometimes sharing is half the fun. But now that everybody knows how much Whimsies love candy, it only makes sense that we would go trick-or-treating. We talked about it for a while, and Tillie and (to a lesser extent) Trixie convinced me it would be safe, if we only went to the houses on either side of Whimsieville. We happen to know for a fact that no dogs live in either of those houses, so I became convinced it would be safe after all to take our Big Trick-or-Treating Adventure.
So, that’s how it started. But next…we got shoes. See, last year we only had one pair of shoes, and also those pretty pink ballet slippers that go with the Fairy Princess outfit. But even then, it meant one of us would have to go with no shoes, and that simply was not an option. Traveling within the confines of Whimsieville we often go barefoot, but once you get outside the gates, there’s Concrete and Asphalt, which are very difficult surfaces for delicate Whimsie feet.
But now we have shoes…lots and lots of shoes! So we know that whatever outfits we might put together, we would be able to add some appropriate shoes to finish off the look, and make us able to safely and comfortably walk those long distances past the gates of Whismieville.
After getting all those shoes, we began to rummage through our wardrobe, seeing if we could put together any new looks that might be good for Halloween. We did indeed find some new looks, but none of them were quite as good as the outfits we had last year. So ultimately, we just decided to repeat. (If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it…right?)
Actually, Trixie has had a hankering to be the Fairy Princess ever since last Halloween, so she gravitated right towards that outfit, and as you can see her, she does it tremendous justice! Trixie’s even taken it up a notch, adding a hot pink shirt rather than the simple white one I wore last year, and she’s also added white tights. What a conglomeration of colors! She considered wearing the sparkly pink sneakers with the Fairy Princess outfit, and while those might have served her quite well, in the end she was set on the pink satin slippers. They are not as rugged as the sneakers, but no matter—once we got on our way, Trixie spent so much time skipping and jumping, pretending she could fly, that her feet barely ever touched the ground, and the slippers remain in good shape, even after a Halloween outing.
Tillie played around with the pirate outfit, and with all her crazy hair, we just had to laugh and agree that she makes the perfect pirate! Doesn’t the eye patch look absolutely adorable on her? Adding the brown suede boots even gives the impression of pirate boots…well…sorta. It was the best she could do, and she spent most of the evening clomping around, shouting “Yo ho! Yo ho! A pirate’s life for me!” So those poor little boots really got a workout!
Now as for me, I end up with the pumpkin outfit, which suits me just fine. I always wondered what it would feel like to be fat, and this gave me an opportunity to try it out. But it’s a most peculiar feeling I don’t particularly care for! It’s very difficult to stand upright when your belly is this big! I kept wanting to fall forward, and had to pull myself upright at the last minute. Luckily, my black patent leather shoes gave me some good footing, and as we traveled the concrete and asphalt roads to the Neighbors’ Houses I was even able to get off a little tap dancing! That made the Holiday feel extra festive!
But wait! I’m getting ahead of myself again! Before we went out, Miss Chrissy said she would like to take a picture of us on the front step. She remembered that when she was a girl, she and her sister would often go out trick-or-treating together, and their Mom would take a picture of them before they left on their adventure. Well, all this talk about being a girl got Miss Chrissy feeling nostalgic, and she went into the Photo Box and dug up one of those pictures of herself with her sister, sitting on the front step in their Halloween costumes.
Oh my! Isn’t this funny! The funny part for me is that this is the way I remember Miss Chrissy, because this is what she looked like when we used to live together all those years ago, before I got taken away by wolves. I don’t remember Halloween, or trick-or-treat, from back in those days, because back in those days young Whimsies didn’t do such things. But I do remember Miss Chrissy like this. Of course she’s much older now, and does look different, but we Whimsies are really good at seeing past the superficialities of age, and seeing the person inside. So when I look at this picture of Miss Chrissy, I remember who she was when we first knew each other…but at the same time, I can easily see that she’s exactly the same person.
I must say, though…I don’t understand those “Halloween costumes” she and her sister are wearing. What is this all about? They look like they are made of colorful plastic, which has been added over their thick Winter coats. How is that a costume? And why does her sister have all those dots on her face? Miss Chrissy assures me that no…her sister did not regularly have dots on her face, but that it must have been part of her costume. But why doesMiss Chrissy not have dots on her face as well? Hmmm…Miss Chrissy had to think about that one for a while. And then it came to her! Obviously, her costume also included a Mask, which her mother made her take off for the picture.
Miss Chrissy does not remember anything in particular about these Halloween costumes, and her clearest memory about Halloween is her cousins coming in and telling her that someone on the other side of the block was giving out DECKS OF CARDS!! Entire, whole decks of cards!! Wow!! And someone else was giving toothbrushes.
Sigh…
But I’m getting off track again, aren’t I? Sorry about that! I guess it’s just that I’m a little hyped up from all the CANDY we’ve eaten tonight! Because even though we only went to a few houses on either side of Whimsieville, boy did we bring in a load of candy! Here’s a picture of us with only a portion of it. The rest of it was already in our bellies by this point.
It was really hard to sit still for this portrait, but I hope it conveys how very excited we are by the whole idea of Halloween and trick-or-treating and FREE CANDY!!! As you can see here, we had two trick-or-treat bags that were shaped like pumpkins, but since I was already shaped like a pumpkin, I let Tillie and Trixie use those special bags. I had to go to Miss Chrissy’s Pocketbook Closet to find something to put my candy in. I took her very smallest little purse—and even so, it was enormous for me!! But that’s okay, because I think all the people who gave us candy felt that if I had such a very big bag, it ought to be filled with lots and LOTS of candy.
I made out like a bandit!
Huh! A bandit. That’s giving me an idea for a new Halloween costume for next year…
Yes, I’m already thinking about next year. Because this was so much fun. And the best part was realizing how much fun you can have, when you don’t let your fears tell you what you should and shouldn’t do. Sometimes it’s okay to take a chance that there won’t be dogs (because sometimes there won’t be) and then you go off and see things you’ve never seen before, and get lots and lots of delicious candy.
All in all, this was a fun and successful evening.
(During our recent bad weather, Tillie fell in love with the flameless candle and decided it would work just perfectly to create an eerie mood for her scary story.)
The Peter Max poster was taken off the wall in the den, and a big white sheet was hung up in its place. (Jennifer’s Professor parents were very modern, so their walls were never white, they were always some strong, almost psychedelic color, and the way I remember it, the walls of the den were some shade of….gold…) Anyway, I’d been to the movies before with Jennifer and her parents, so I was no stranger to BIG movie images, but never before in our own house! And it was also strange to be watching a movie in grainy black-and-white, rather than Technicolor. Add on top of all that: it’s a silent movie!
Of course, the creepiest thing of all about this movie, is Nosferatu himself. Nosferatu is a vampire, and if I’m remembering this right, he is the first vampire to ever appear in a movie. And he’s nothing like the vampires from movies that we’ve seen since then. Frank Langella in the 1970’s was absolutely handsome, as was George Hamilton in Love at First Bite (which doesn’t really count, because it’s a comedy, and boy! Is that movie funny!) Even Barnabas Collins from TV’s Dark Shadows looks better than Noferatu! This first movie vampire has a huge bald head, pointed ears, dark eyes, long fingernails, bad teeth—nothing you would consider even remotely attractive in a vampire, never mind a human being! Add to all this the dramatically creepy background organ music, the black-and-white, he doesn’t even talk so you have no idea what he’s thinking, and frankly…he’s absolutely terrifying!
As for that laughing, I have a theory. I think the other partygoers, the Grown-Up Professors, were also frightened by Nosferatu, but too embarrassed to admit it, so they chose to cover their fear with laughter, so nobody would know how they really felt. People do that sometimes, you know.
(Trixie puts on the Halloween pajammy to cuddle up with several dozen scary movies! Here’s what she has to say about them.)
I say three, because one of them is really two: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll himself is not scary, at least not the way he looks. But it is kind of scary when you think about a man who is a scientist and wants to mess around with human nature. Sure, human nature is not always the best, but everything in books and movies paints a pretty convincing argument that trying to mess around with human nature never makes it better, it only makes it worse! So why keep trying? All you get is this monster, who’s ugly, and rude, and very scary. Not the sort of fellow you’d like to run into in the grocery store…never mind in a dark alley at midnight!
That was a very bad time of my life, having to live with them, and I’m not going to dwell on it. Let’s go back to the movies. How about this one: Is anyone really in love with the Frankenstein monster? Talk about scary-looking! Flat head, scars all over, bolts in his neck! There’s never been anyone like him. He’s sort of alive…but also sort of dead. What is he? A monster? An ogre? But he’s nice to the little girl, he doesn’t want to hurt anyone. Like Hulk (who is also scary-looking) he just wants to be left alone. Of course, it’s his creator, Dr. Frankenstein, who’s the real monster. But that’s a whole ‘nother story that I won’t go into here.
(Tessie feels nothing says “Halloween” better than a black cat! So here she is with our resident black cat—Mr. Squee!)
I could tell you all about mummies, ghosts and ventriloquists, but the most unsettling thing I’ve ever seen in the movies is a “comedy” team called Abbott and Costello. The big one, Abbott, is domineering and mean, and the short fat one, Costello, is just plain stupid. He’s always doing things that get them in trouble. These two have run into Trixie’s Frankenstein AND Jekyll and Hyde in their movies, as well as Count Dracula, and every time, they muff it up big-time. It’s supposed to be funny, but to me it’s just frustrating, and the scary part is that there might really be people in the world as dim-witted as the chubby guy in the goofy hat. 
I’ll go first, since I think my shoes are the fanciest. They are white patent leather, tied up with great big white bows. If you ask me, these look like “tap shoes,” which are for dancing, and if I had a video camera, you would see that I did quite a bit of dancing while wearing these shoes, and they dance very well, except that they don’t actually have taps on the bottom. But if they did, I would be tapping up a storm!
Now let’s take a look at Tessie. She’s got a bit of pink and white stripes going on, to help show off her new shoes…which are most peculiar, because really….what the heck is going on with these shoes? I mean, they’re clearly sneakers, which are the upmost in casual footwear, but not only are they pink, they’re covered with sparkles!! Sparkly pink sneakers! Oh my! The Fashion Diva in me is left absolutely breathless. I can’t wait to put on these sparkly pink sneakers with some of my favorite pink outfits. Not only do they look super sharp, but Tessie reports they are absolutely as comfortable as you would expect any pair of sneakers to be. 
And oh…now…at last we come to the very best of all. Because I think no one can top how totally stlish and gorgeous Miss Tillie looks in her fancy outfit with her fancy new golden shoes. Did you hear me? Can you see? GOLDEN shoes! But really, they’re more like slippers, almost like ballerina slippers, slip-ons with a simple X strap across the top. The shoes are great, of course, but look at the outfit Tillie has put together to show them off! That skirt she’s wearing…well, I’ll let you in on a little secret: it’s not really a skirt! Actually, it IS a skirt, but it’s a “tree skirt” for a very tiny Christmas tree. It just so happens that the size of the base of a very small Christmas tree is exactly the same as a Whimsie’s waistline, so Tillie has simply tied this “skirt” around her waist, and doesn’t it look festive, paired with a simple black turtleneck? 
We always have so much fun when we get new clothes (and new shoes!) and get to rummage through our wardrobe to put together new looks to share with you here. However, as we prepared for this photo shoot, one thing was very obvious: our Wardrobe is getting so BIG, it’s totally out of control!! It’s almost impossible to find anything anymore. Well, we can find anything we need, it just takes a long, long time, because there are so many clothes to go through! So our next project, here in Whimsieville, is to do a total reorganization of our Wardrobe! All our shoes together in one place, all our hats together in another, all tops, all bottoms, all dresses, all socks, etc. etc. I’m imagining this could take all day. But that’s okay, because we have the whole day ahead of us. Miss Chrissy is making some hot chocolate with mini-marshmallows and whipped cream, and with that sweet treat to fortify us for the task at hand, we’ll get right down to business. And, with any luck at all, the next time you see us, we should be Totally…Organized…Whimsies!
Tillie here! And I’ve got a little story to tell you…
around quite a bit, but that’s all. Still…you never know when weather might get dangerously bad, so it’s a good thing to know what you’re going to do in case it does.
In the Safe Place there is a radio with batteries, in case the electricity goes out and the TV won’t work anymore. If we can’t hear the TV Weatherman on the TV, at least we can listen to him on the radio. There are also flashlights and a couple of “flameless candles,” which are really cool, because they look just like a candle, but there is no actual flame that might burn you. 
Miss Chrissy and The Man have a couple of bicycle helmets tucked away in a corner of the Safe Place. If the Weatherman ever said the weather was getting REALLY REALLY bad, they would put those on. They would also put some money and some Important Papers in their pockets, and keep it all safe there pinned down with a safety pin.
In fact, last night, we just mostly listened to the rain and the thunder and the TV Weatherman, and watched the lightning, and stayed alert, ready for anything. We were ready, ready for anything…and nothing happened. And that’s a good thing.
Except for poor Tessie. She’s a bit sensitive. Sometimes, I would even say she’s timid. I think maybe the possibility of bad things happening reminds her too much of her experiences from years ago, when she was abducted from Miss Chrissy’s clubhouse by wolves, and they bit off her earlobe. It was a terrible, terrible time for her, and even though she usually doesn’t think about it (she doesn’t ***dwell on it) sometimes the memory can come back pretty strong and make her feel more afraid and anxious than she actually needs to feel.
Last night, Trixie wanted to stay in the Safe Place all night, and listen to rock and roll music on the radio, and use the flashlights to play games with Mr. Squee. She kept wanting to try on Miss Chrissy’s bicycle helmet, which of course doesn’t fit her — not even close! She went rummaging around in the boxes and running through all the hanging clothes, thinking this was all one big lark.
We have some new shoes to show you, but we thought we’d take a break from the Shoe Show to get back to another one of our favorite fashion finds: hats! Miss Chrissy found a couple of cute ones at the Boutique recently, and we’ve also pulled one out from the back of the Wardrobe that we’re not sure whether or not we’ve already displayed this one. You know what? We have so many hats now, we can’t possibly keep track of them all, LOL! But that’s not a bad thing.
And yet doesn’t it work perfectly? Till also decides to show a fringe of bangs–though really, her bangs are more than just a fringe, aren’t they? With her long beautiful hair over her ears, held down in place by this snug little beauty of a winter cap, I’m sure she’ll stay plenty warm when the weather warrants a Winter hat!
Now Trixie, on the other hand, does not appear ready to let go of the Summer months—and perhaps a good thing, too, as we’ve been unseasonably high here in Whimsieville these past days, with October temperatures still climbing into the 80’s! Well, Trixie is ready for the temps and the sunshine with her sporty denim hat, newly arrived from the Boutique. Notice the jaunty angle of the brim! Oh, how like our Trixie! And yet the single decorative detail of a thin white ribbon, tied in a pretty bow…how feminine against the rugged denim! This big floppy hat will fit for any occasion, even going over Trixie’s full braids with no apparent problem! A denim hat does not stretch (like the wool ones Tillie and I are wearing) so too big is better than too small in this case. With denim, you don’t want to be snug and uncomfortable. You want to be loose and lazy!
