Halloween is almost upon us once again and it has always brought back great memories for me.
The 1970s were a golden age for hilariously bad Halloween costumes, and having been a child of that decade, I would not have had it any other way.
It was a great time for kitschy TV superheroes as well, in all their cheap-production glory.
We had The Greatest American Hero, The Six Million Dollar Man (and Woman), The Amazing Spider-Man and, my favourite, The Incredible Hulk.
There was no one better than Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk, and the role made the champion bodybuilder a superstar.
My mother, who has always been creative and made Halloween costumes for my brother and me every year, didn’t have much of a choice in 1979 as I was hooked on that show.
I remember trying it on and thinking that this was the greatest costume ever. The photo of that moment standing with my mother and brother is something that I will forever cherish. Seeing that image instantly transports me back to my happy childhood.
My bulging muscles were made with foam stuffed under my green fabric “skin”, and the thick eyebrows, just like Lou had, is definitely a highlight for me.
I wore it to school that day as well as out for Halloween night.
I remember climbing out of the back seat of our family’s battleship-sized 1973 lime green Chevrolet Impala — a perfect match with my costume — at school as The Hulk and couldn’t wait for my friends at Mount Albert Public School to see me.
I have funny memories of me walking around the schoolyard at recess that day recreating Ferrigno’s angry arm flexing of anyone that got in my way. What a fantastic time to be a kid.
My wife and I don’t have children, and I wonder if there are any parents out there who still hand-make their kids' costumes anymore. I’m assuming that there are not many, as modern manufacturing is able to cheaply create incredibly realistic and detailed true-to-life costumes nowadays.
I find that kind of sad, though, as half the fun was making something from scratch. It didn’t matter if it was bad or not — and if my Hulk costume was store-bought, I’m sure I wouldn’t have such a great memory of it.
These days, superheroes dominate Halloween, thanks to all the Marvel blockbuster films that have saturated Hollywood, as well as the children’s costume industry.
I have only ever watched a couple of the early Marvel movies and have avoided them since. The modern takes on these comic-book heroes kind of ruin my memories of them in my childhood years.
If I were to dress up for Halloween nowadays, what would I even wear? I guess it would need to be something frightening, as scary costumes are timeless, of course.
Why not go out as Canada’s June inflation rate of 8.1 per cent? That was pretty scary.
How about broccoli? I’ve always been terrified of that stuff.
And it's green as well. Yuck.
Or maybe…. on second thought, I think I’ll be leaving the dressing up to the kids this year.
Kevin Lamb is a Barrie-based freelance photojournalist, reporter and longtime contributor to BarrieToday.
