Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

This past Saturday, The Gryphon and I attended two Halloween parties, the first at the home of The Martial Artist and The Book Lover, who have thrown a Halloween party at their home since they first moved in, several years ago.

Because of all the wedding planning and then our subsequent honeymoon, I didn't have a lot of time to put together a costume, so I wanted to do something that was primarily character-based. Plus, I have a lot of fun interacting with people in character.

At first, The Gryphon and I were going to do costumes that went together, and we'd considered a number of different options. The most intriguing one was to have him wear a dinosaur head and go around the party, saying, "Grr." I would be the psychiatrist trying to cure him of his belief he was a dinosaur. Highly conceptual, wot?

We might have gone with it, except for the difficulty in finding a dinosaur mask. Then, I was driving along one day, thinking of the new NBC series Journeyman, when I got the brilliant idea to play time travelers. At least one of us, I felt, should come from the time period of HG Wells, while the other could come from any time between then and now, perhaps being someone the initial time traveler picked up while jumping between times.

I shopped at the Salvation Army the weekend before the party, looking for a costume. I was hoping to find a ruffled shirt that could pass for Victorian, which I intended to pair with a simple, long skirt. I wanted a muted palette and a simple design, so that it seemed like I could have perhaps sewn these items myself. But when I couldn't find a ruffled shirt, I opted for a simple button-down shirt, which I could pair with a vest. I figured I'd revise my origin point to the beginning of the 2oth century.

But I wanted to add a couple more touches. I figured that my time traveler might have accumulated some sort of modern garment which she would mistakenly think would help her blend in. That's why I picked up a brightly colored flowered overcoat, as well as wore my purple sunglasses. And I topped it all off with an old-fashioned looking red hat.

And lastly, I needed some sort of handheld device that would allude to a time machine or at least to the fact that time was an issue for me. I settled on a pocket watch I picked up in a consignment store, and I covered the dial with an image a HG Wells-style time machine dial.

I decided, given my costume, that I would be from 1907, which would also make it fun when people asked me what year it was: "Aught seven, of course." I needed a name that might give some hint of who I was, so I came up with Lydia Wells Verne, a fictional cousin of HG Wells and niece of Jules Verne. Finally, I did some research online about the year 1907, as well as the two early SF authors.

Lydia, I determined, was a suffragette, a modern thinker and very interested in all the latest advances. After all, the first decade of the 20th century saw the beginning of the technological and medical advances we take for granted today.

By 1907, the Wright Brothers had taken their first flight, a fledgling film industry was offering films in Nickelodeon theaters (though Charlie Chaplin wouldn't make his first film for seven more years), the combustion engine had been invented but was not yet in widespread use, the Curries had published their theories on radium, Freud had met Jung, and Einstein had just published some of his groundbreaking works.

At the same time, the stage was being set for world war. President Theodore Roosevelt was building up the U.S. Navy as protection. The world was beset by epidemics such as polio and yellow fever. Women were fighting for the right to vote, and the biggest news in popular culture was the scandalous — for that time — opera Salome.

Getting dressed up is never The Gryphon's favorite thing, so he suggested that he be the modern person who found me, and he simply wore blue jeans, a button-down shirt and his chocolate brown blazer. Here he is at the second party of the evening.

As we were driving to the first party, we discussed our background. We decided he was a college professor named Werner Von Kronenberger, and he had been doing mysterious research on tacheons when I suddenly materialized in his tool-shed. For my part, I'd been going through some material in cousin Herbie's estate when I started fiddling around with an intriguing contraption. Next thing I know, it's the wrong Aught Seven.

When we entered the party, I stayed in character early on, as people tried to figure out who I was. Sometimes, as soon as they heard the name, they got an idea that I might be a time traveler; other times, it took more hints, such as me goggling over the modern devices in the home, or stating my radical views that it was time for women to get the right to vote!

It did occur to me, though, that since I was acting in character, I could very easily have been representing some sort of historical figure who just happened to be out of place. To make it more overt that I was a time traveler, I started talking about "Cousin Herbie" and relating the experience of my strange journey. I also talked about how he "used to tell all these fantastic stories and we said, 'Just write them down and shut up'."

I also claimed that Uncle Jules was great except for that blasted French accent and his habit of eating stinky cheese.

At first, I made an effort to bring in The Gryphon as the professor, calling him in to speak to The Dormouse about tacheons, but he didn't seem terribly interested in it. In fact, he didn't even try out the German accent he'd played around with on the drive there. I, though, stuck to a sort of British upper crust accent as long as I was in character, and I got a lot of compliments on the costume.

One of the people who was fun to interact with was The Cousin, who had come dressed as a Hawaiian tourist. Of course, being the fish out of water that I was, I mistook her tourist souvenirs for military insignia and marveled at the forward-thinking Americans.

She had heard of Salome and agreed with me that it shouldn't be banned. After all, as she said, "The story comes from the Bible."

Her husband, The Photographer, was fun to interact with in character, as well. He had come dressed as a historic West Indian pirate, wearing clothes that looked straight out of an explorer's sketchbook. He gave himself the amusing name Legs Akimbo and, while in character, talked with a halting accent, coming from some time in the late 1800s, I believe.

Their daughters both came as characters I didn't recognize but I believe come from some of their favorite Japanese manga (or perhaps video games). They told me, but I'm afraid I forget. They looked great, though.

Our host, The Martial Artist, wore a more traditional pirate costume, with white cotton shirt, red bandanna and sword. He took a break from the food preparations to pose in character for me: "Arrrr!"

Our hostess, The Book Lover, wore the Arwin Narsil costume, from The Lord of the Rings, which she had sewn herself. I had fun interacting with her, in character, taking away the impression that she, too, was a time traveler from from a far more distant time and place, Riverdell. I took her picture in front of the window, for a mystical effect.

As soon as The Dormouse revealed his costume, I understood why he'd been interested in talking to Professor Werner Von Kronenberger about tacheons. He was playing the mad scientist bad-ass from A Miracle of Science, the popular web comic written by The Cheshire Cat and drawn by The Court Wizard. Unfortunately, The Cheshire Cat couldn't attend the party to see his friend pay homage to his creation.

Completing the costume parade, The March Hare arrived as a character from the science fiction series Stargate.

The Paralegal was dressed as a witch, but had her hat off for most of the party. We had a good time talking about things like improv comedy and the days when we used to do sort of long-form improv as members of the Monty Python Society, staying in character for hours at on-campus events.

Other guests didn't arrive in costume although they often would try out parts of other people's costumes. My College Roommate and her husband attended with their son. Her costume consisted of wearing a fan club pin for fellow Penn Stater and college buddy, The White Rabbit. At various times during the party, I spotted The White Rabbit himself wearing other people's hats, a mischievous smile on his face. Of course, he's always so much fun, with his witty nonsequiturs, he might as well be in character.

I also got to meet a coworker of The Martial Artist, along with his wife and their daughter. The little girl ran around for most of the party with a mermaid tail over her pants, but she ditched the crown and other people, including her dad, had fun trying it on.

At one point, I joined all three mommies downstairs with their children and hung out with them, as the kids played and people took turns reading to them. It made me miss my niece and nephew, who'd I'd only seen for a relatively brief time over my wedding weekend.

The food was delicious: some potato-leek soup provided by the hosts and a vegetarian Mexican lasagna that The Gryphon and I made. Our hosts also provided tacos, but they were red-meat-based, so I didn't try them. And of course, there were copious snacks and beverages.

Later in the party, a group of people went downstairs to watch a modern silent horror film based on the Lovecraft Cthullu mythos. I stayed upstairs and chatted with My College Roommate and also the coworker's wife, who teaches at a Hebrew school and told me a lot about her job. I was interested in how many similarities there are between her synagogue and the sort of interpersonal issues that occur in churches.

As it neared 10 p.m., which was the official end-time of the party anyway, we took our leave, thanking our hosts. When The Dormouse learned we were headed to a Halloween party hosted by the Horror Film Buff, he followed us in his car. After all, we knew that party, which tends to be attended by SF fans and artistic types, would be a lot of fun.

More from Halloween 2007:

November 5, 1007 - Doing the Time Warp

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

November 2007 Index

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