Halloween Popcorn

Halloween 2007 began in 2005 when I bought a refrigerator magnet at Tallahassee's Bed Bath & Beyond shaped exactly like a two-wheeled push-propelled popcorn machine. It caught my eye and I bought it and I didn't think anything of it again until my grandsons outgrew their bicycle stroller trailer in early 2007. The trailer had three wheels, and so I removed the two rear pneumatic tires and used them to build a wearable model of my popcorn machine refrigerator magnet.

In many ways, I framed a similar costume to my Big Choice crane game costume of 1986, an upright rectangular construction on caster wheels with a service area in front, and room for myself in the rear without exposure. I built it slightly deeper than needed, for both the popcorn bin and me. I attached the trailer wheels at front, and at back I used two upright 2" * 2" lumber on which to rest the contraption.

Years earlier, I had attended a garage sale where I bought two black plastic molded cauldrons. I used the smaller of the two for my popcorn cooker and suspended it above the popcorn bin with wire. I used sheets of plastic for the popcorn bin.

I was torn as to how much of myself to expose. I could stay inside and be the popcorn machine, or I could walk behind it and push the machine, using it more of a prop than a costume. This decision would influence how tall I needed to make the popcorn machine costume, so I complicated matters by selecting both options. For a previous Halloween, I had assembled a papier mache torso for modelling costume designs, so I used it for this costume. On it, I put the latex breasts that I as Bobie the Builder wore five years earlier, a witch's mask with a jester's hat, and a red-and-white striped vendor smock with embroidered skirt, and made myself a horrific popcorn sales lady who would push the popcorn machine. I put a name tag on her and called her Polly.

I stood inside the popcorn machine and was concealed by the machine between Polly and her popcorn.

Since the popcorn machine needed to accommodate me as well, I had to make it taller than me, but if I simply made it taller than me, it wouldn't fit into the car, so I made the upper foot of the costume removable.

What I personally wore was irrelevant. I usually wore sturdy shoes and pants and a t-shirt, unless I expected a cold evening. Many people at first glance assumed that Polly was the "wearer" of the costume, especially as time wore on at drinking establishments.

People chowed on the popcorn wherever I went, so I popped fresh popcorn before each event. I cleaned the popcorn machine fairly well after each costume contest, but Halloween popcorn residue is especially persistent. To this day, whenever I take out the popcorn machine or show it off, I notice popped kernel husks around and about the popcorn bin.

With the popcorn machine costume, I won five costume contests in Tallahassee and Havana Florida. I won Havana's Pumpkin Festival contest and I won at the American Legion Hall. At Chez Pierre's restaurant, I won two 40 yard line tickets to a Florida State and Maryland football game, and on Halloween night I won two costume contests, at Mark's Bar on Apalachee Parkway, and at the now-closed Brothers Lounge on Tharpe Street.

It was a multi-costume year in 2007 and I won a total of eight costume contests. I wore my 2000 Lighthouse costume at Two Nichols Restaurant in St. Marks and won first place, under the virtual shadow of the St. Marks Lighthouse. I reprised my 2002 Bob the Builder costume at the Big Bend Hospice Halloween benefit at the Greek Orthodox Church and had first choice among all the prizes.

It was a good Halloween.