Throughout time people have enjoyed the occasion to dress up in costume. It is not so much about lacking identity, but the fun of stepping into a new one temporarily.
Mardi Gras takes this to the extreme, but my memories go back to being a child at Halloween. Getting scared of creepy ghost and goblins was fun. Getting a bag of candy was great. Going from house to house and ringing doorbells with lit jack-o lanterns flickering at our feet was exciting, but the build up of what we would be that year took the prize.
In my early years I dressed up as Raggedy Anne with a homemade raggedy dress and a plastic mask. And one year, I dressed up as Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie. I had drawn on freckles, a bucket, and a cane pole. If I recall, I wore that outfit marching in our 1976 Bi-centennial parade at school. I even won a prize.
I don't remember a great deal of superheroes back when I was a kid. There were cowboys, Indians, vampires, and mummies. One year my brother's friend, Price Yates, wore a sheet over his head with a dog collar around his neck to hold it in place. My brother bugged him about it between each house as mom would pull up and let us pile in and out. "Are you the ghost of a dead dog?"
With the explosion of Disney Princesses and Marvel Comic Heroes, costumes have become a year-round event. Little girls collect princess gowns. And in the kid's section of JC Penney there are little boy costumes all the time. I know this become I am "that" Grandma known as Cici. And if my grandsons want to dress up in costume for no reason whatsoever then they should.
When Daniel entered into this phase I remembered my young cousin being obsessed with Annie. She had the dress and shoes. The whole bit. And with this pseudo identity she developed a habit of kicking people just like Annie did in her then favorite movie. I believe that costume was put away for a while.
But I am a firm believer in feeding the imagination. And if Daniel goes from wanting to be Spiderman to Woody on Toy Story, then let's go get the costume. And if he decides to switch over to Buzz Lightyear, the costume is hanging on the next shelf. His father wore his Power Rangers outfit to school so much in the first grade that it went from red to dark pink. When Daniel decided his new fixation was Mario Amazon, Prime was dialed up.
Daniel Clay had spent the night with us the evening the package arrived. Grandparents never get tired of watching little eyes light up. He put on the outfit. He made me draw a little black mustache on his upper lip and that is how he slept with a slight smile on his little four-year-old face. So, the next morning when I had to get to work, and he needed to be dropped off at his pre-school because his Pre-K class had not begun for the year, he refused to take off his "new identity." Being the amazing Cici that I am, that is how he was dropped off, mustache and all. He put his hands on his hips and said to the children, "I'm Mario, but I'm also Daniel Clay Foreman." And one little girl looked at him like he had lost his mind as he adjusted his little red Mario cap.
As it turned out, just like me letting him take whatever toy he wanted to take to school, a note was sent home much like the "no toys brought to school" note to refrain from wearing costumes. The next time I saw him I talked to him about all the new friends he was about to make at Pre-K. He said he had enough friends. My son informed me he was upset because the boys stole his Mario hat from him and would not give it back. Apparently not all the children were in the mood to role play. My husband said, "And that is why Cici's don't send their grandchildren to school wearing costumes. They become 'that kid!'"
We had gone out to dinner with a couple who are some of our dearest friends. I told this story, and Kathy said, "When I was in third grade, I wanted to wear a chicken bone in my hair like Pebbles on Flintstones, and my mom let me."
I asked if it was a real chicken bone, and she said yes. I glanced over at my husband who was looking at her with the expression that little girl had at the preschool. And there you have it! From chicken bones to cane poles, to a painted on mustache, Moms and Grandmas know there is nothing like feeding the imagination. They have the rest of their adult lives to spend adulting. I say bring on the capes and magic wands!
