Saturday, November 1, 2008

No gypsies this year...




Where have all the gypsies gone? There were plenty of Hannah Montanas, Spidermen, witches, princesses, Darth Vaders, and such, but not one gypsy came trick or treating to the Ball house on Halloween. When I was a kid, I was a gypsy for about 6 years out of the 8 or so years I got to go trick or treating. As a matter of fact, the 5th graders in my class really didn't even know what a gypsy was when I gave them that word as part of their Halloween spelling list. I had to try my best to be politically correct while describing what the word meant. Lots of confused looks surfaced as I rambled on and on about roaming bands of nomadic people in modern times... I mean, come on, people, where have all the gypsies gone?

Maybe it was so easy to be a gypsy because of all the 100s of canning rings that were floating around the kitchen during my childhood, due to the fact that my mother was the number one "Home Canning Extraordinaire"! I didn't have pierced ears, but We.Had.Canning.Rings! Simply slip a string around the ring, make a loop, and hang it around your ear for gypsy glamour! That, plus a lot of mismatched clothing, a long skirt, and a lovely head scarf of some type...usually a hand towel or a clean cloth baby diaper...and you were a gypsy! No one during the 70s had to ask what you were when you appeared on their doorstep. It was crystal clear: "What a cute gypsy you are! I love your beautiful earrings!"

Little did I know when I was younger that my children would never dress as gypsies, except for Alyssa when she dressed as Esmerelda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. (Do kids nowadays even know that Disney made that show???)

I never in my wildest dreams thought I would have children portraying their father's occupation...



Or, dressing as I did during high school...



Or, wanting to be a crazy B S U fan???




Who would have thought? Not me, but then again, none of my kids would be very good gypsies anyway, because we have no cloth diapers or canning rings floating around the kitchen.

7 comments:

The Ball Babies said...

Mom I didn't know you were a gypsy!(for Halloween) Was everyone a gypsy then? I've never seen one on Halloween before, ever.Love LINDSAY!

Ted and Leslie said...

And by the way....when did we start buying costumes? I don't think we ever bought anything growing up...if we didn't have it we didn't get it. Simple as that...(unless we wanted to walk uphill bothways in the snowstorm to get it!) By the way, we changed our blog address. We decided that including our first names, last names, and the state where we lived wasn't in the best interest of security. Our new address is tedandleslie.blogspot.com. Thanks!

Amanda said...

Oh I was totally a gypsy one year for halloween. Your kids look great!

jo said...

I remeber the gypies! I also remember just making up a costume from whatever we had at home.....those were the days! Your kids look great and it looks like it was a good time at the Ball Home.

Aly G said...

love the costumes! you guys look tooo good!

Jenn and Tyler said...

So hilarious! I was a gypsie last year and my boys were pirates. It was a blast! I love all your kids's costumes! They all looked great!

Holly said...

Have you not seen the family pictures from Weston and Carolyn's? I was a gypsy this year! I even tied a tambourine to my skirt so you could hear me coming. The adults knew what I was, but yes, the kids all asked, "What is a gypsy?" The closest explanation was Esmerelda from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."