Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Bob the Builder

I won eight costume contests in four Florida cities in October 2002.

In Spring 2002, I looked out my living room window and saw a construction worker with a backhoe beginning work in the neighbor's yard, and that very day I began working on my Halloween costume. I used caster wheels at the bottom for mobility and plywood to make the costume's wheels, a PVC smokestack, an orange emergency light at top, and built a scoop and a shovel at each end. The hardest part was to make the scoop on my backhoe work, but using interlocking wooden pieces and dowels, gravity and a variable length drawn guide wire, I grew quite adept at operating my backhoe with efficiency, agility and a semblance of reality.

I didn't know who Bob the Builder was until I donned a hardhat, vest and gloves and took my backhoe to Havana's Pumpkin Festival, where all the kids gathered around and wanted to ride in the backhoe and they called me Bob the Builder. I won Havana's costume contest as Bob the Builder and went home to watch and learn more about Bob the Builder on Nickelodeon.


By my next outing, I knew that Bob the Builder's backhoe was named Scoop, and I had added eyes to him. I wore a plaid shirt and overalls and a tool belt with tools like Bob did, and I put the Bob the Builder logo on my hardhat. Bob didn't have a mustache, so I shaved mine. I won the costume contest at the office.


When I went trick-or-treating with my family, the neighborhood kids sang the Bob the Builder song to me.

I won costume contests at the American Legion Hall and the Big Bend Hospice benefit at the Greek Orthodox Church in Tallahassee. I was the youngest contestant and won at the Tallahassee Senior Center on Highway 27, Monroe Street.

Bob the Builder won the costume contest at Schooners Last Local Beach Club in Panama City Beach Florida, and here is the Florida Panhandle sunset from that memorable evening....


Brothers, a nightclub now closed and still empty on West Tharpe Street, was billed as "Tallahassee's Pansexual Playground" and I needed to do something special. I bought and wore a nice pair of latex breasts from Magic and Fun Costume Shop, where I've been purchasing Halloween supplies since 1980, and added an over-sized bikini cover-up t-shirt --- with bikini printed on the shirt. I wore a feathered boa and beads, sunglasses, lipstick and nail polish, and appended "ie" to "Bob" on my hardhat. Bobie the Builder was a big success and won Brothers' costume contest.

 

I wore 2000's Lighthouse costume to Monticello Florida, and I won the costume contest downtown at the Opera House, and front page mention by name in the city's newspaper, the Monticello News.

2 comments:

  1. Would you like to sale your "scoop"? Not sure if you still have this or not. My son is going to be Bob the Builder for Halloween and was going to start making one myself and then came across yours. If you would be interested just email me at jdethi35@gmail.com Thanks!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Would you like to sale your "scoop"? Not sure if you still have this or not. My son is going to be Bob the Builder for Halloween and was going to start making one myself and then came across yours. If you would be interested just email me at jdethi35@gmail.com Thanks!!

    ReplyDelete