It was October 31st 2000, my son AJ was 10 and a HUGE Halloween nut (just like ME) and we had to come up with a costume Quick! I had been working two jobs to make ends meet and I had not had enough time to either purchase a costume for Halloween for him nor did I have the time to think of one. There was this costume contest at 2 pm at the local mall and then I had to take him trick or treating. I had promised to take him and totally FORGOT!!
Of course AJ reminded me at 9 am and it was now 11am and I had NO idea what to do….. Well I was sitting on the front porch no ideas where coming to me!! In the back ground I heard this commercial – Jiffy Pop!
Magnificent – he has the energy to put it off….did I have what it takes to make it???
I ran in the house to see what I could manage to “put” together. A brainstorm!! I had a couple large pizza boxes that were by the trash can from the night before, rubber cement, a stapler, red and black markers, yellow spray paint from my crafts box, 2 pair of white tights out of my daughter’s dresser, some old yellow face paint (again from my craft box) a baseball hat from my husband’s closet, a bag of microwavable popcorn and last but not least…..a can of butter spray from the kitchen!!!!
I cut the boxes into squares that would cover the front and back of AJ, made some shoulder pad squares and some side rectangles that would go down the side. I gave them flaps so it was easy to staple them together around AJ to look like a “popcorn” box. While I had AJ wear a yellow turtleneck shirt I also had him put on a pair of white tights on his legs and then had the second pair cut and put them on his arms (after I spray painted them yellow and they dried) I had also spray painted the hat yellow and put the cement glue on it (the popcorn had been popped) and then added the popcorn to the top of the hat. I had also put the rubber cement on the shoulder pads of the box and the top portion of the chest area and the top portion of the box added popcorn to those areas as well. Lets not forget the pizza boxes were originally put inside outwards and I had spray painted the boxes yellow before adding the cement glue and the popcorn to the front, back and shoulder areas. I drew on front and back red strips and in black I wrote “BIG POPPING BOX”. I painted his face yellow and AGAIN last but not least I sprayed him with the butter spray!!! (all the areas where the popcorn were). A complete masterpiece!!
It had taken me about 2 hours to complete (and being very frugal) I had only spent – maybe – $2.00? With all the stuff I had lying around – it was very economical!!!
I took AJ to the mall for the costume contest. We had gotten quite a few looks – from the smell I suppose. There were so many NICE costumes and very extravagant ones as well I didn’t think we even had a chance. When it was AJ’s time to go on stage – he climbed the podium and began hopping around and saying “pop – pop – pop”. It was so comical!! The radio announcer had even taken the microphone over to AJ and asked him what he was…..he said “POP-POP – of course can’t you tell…I’m a bag of popcorn!!”
HE WON 2nd place!!! It was great……he was proud of his animation and I was too!!!
AJ is now 19 and we remember that day fondly. I didn’t have a camera then so I wasn’t able to get photo’s – but I can tell you I will NEVER forget that WONDERFUL day.
Warm Regards everyone!!
Lynn Faxon
