Ann St. Martin Stout
Leaves are Free
For 36 years we’ve had a dress-up box. But all good things must come to an end, at least for a time.
The dress-up clothes were sometimes stored in a drawer, sometimes in a plastic bin, sometime in a box, and provided hours of entertainment. It grew quite organically — a grandmother’s discarded purse good for “delivering” mail, a Boy Scout hat from an uncle’s closet, a rawhide, lace-up shirt perfect for playing a frontiersman like Daniel Boone.
At a third-grade birthday party, two teams, each with a costume, competed in a relay sort of game. A team member pulled the loose costume over her clothes, ran across the room to the next teammate and passed on the outfit. The photos are hilarious. Move over Chuck E. Cheese and laser tag, we can handle this party entertainment.
As the kids grew, the costumes changed. Sometimes they were worn too big or sometimes too small. Often there was enough of a selection to create a cohesive Halloween costume from the items in the box.
Hats, wide belts, lady’s long gloves, a bow tie and jewelry were some of the accessories. “I liked the faux fur shawl with a pair of high heels and big sunglasses. It was the perfect ensemble,” recalls our 30-year-old daughter. It brings to mind when my own grandmother allowed my younger sister and me to use the retired prom, graduation and bridesmaid dresses of our aunts, still hanging in the closet at the big house. The rustle of tulle and taffeta made us feel very special. She threw away the high heels so we wouldn’t break an ankle.
As our children began participating in All Saints Day celebrations, (Nov. 1, where All Hallows Eve — Halloween — gets its name), we added ankle-length homemade shifts. Brown served as a habit for a Carmelite saint or a Franciscan saint; white for angels and nuns; a blue cloak for Mary.
The black and white striped costume labeled for prisoner #16670 got used for everyday dress up, as well as to commemorate St. Maximillian Kolbe. He was a Catholic priest who was executed at Auschwitz. (His life story is a good read.) Many of the saint costumes have been passed on to Mount Royal Academy for use on saints’ feast days.
If you are looking for pure fun however, what dress up box would be complete without a clown costume, including the multicolored wig? We had that too.
Yard sale purchases of a Superman costume and a blue M&M both made it until this year. Our superhero costume developed a split in the seat while on a mid-teen grandson. Superman had met his demise. As I was rummaging through the box, I picked up the M&M costume and out sprinkled the disintegrated foam that once made the round candy look puffy.
As fewer grandchildren use the dress up stuff, the contents of the box shrinks. But even if the costumes go away completely (which I doubt) there is always the large, sheer panel of fabric in the sewing stash that can become a fairy costume, a wedding dress, or whatever the imagination dictates.
As more young people join the family and the neighborhood, I’ll keep a tidy, curated collection, in a compact suitcase, perhaps, of dress up clothes for the next generation.
— Ann St. Martin Stout is a Newport native and, with her husband Greg, has raised seven children there. She has written two books and can be reached at [email protected].
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