THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 31, 1996 TAG: 9610310064
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY WENDY GROSSMAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 79 lines
TONIGHT'S THE night to forget who you are, don a costume and be someone else who has more fun. Which seems very attractive not just to children but to their parents as well.
It used to be that, for adults, Halloween was a matter of schlepping the kids around the neighborhood and scraping smashed pumpkins off the sidewalk.
In the past 20 years, that's changed. Halloween has become a Big Deal party opportunity for grownups.
Baby boomers have something to do with the growth of Halloween, says Jack Santino, professor of folklore and popular culture at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.
Living up to the stereotype of a generation that refuses to grow up, boomers have determined not to just sit at home waiting for pranksters or the Great Pumpkin but to use the holiday as one more reason to party.
So these days, revelers long past trick-or-treating age are out in force. Adults jump onto haunted hayrides and wander through chambers of horror and attend countless Halloween parties. And many grown-ups spend long hours elaborately decorating their homes for this pre-Holidays holiday.
This year offers three opportunities for revelry: the weekend before, the weekend after and Halloween itself - today.
Schoolteacher Jonette Ewell, 42, went to a party in Chesapeake last weekend as Cleopatra.
``Halloween's a lot more fun as an adult,'' Ewell said, swinging her gold heels. ``It's inside. It's not cold. You're not running around - and all the food's right here.''
``I like Halloween a lot more than when I was a kid,'' said Pam Snyder, 36, a systems analyst from Chesapeake at the same party. ``It's funner when you're older. Plus, people have really gotten into decorating more in the past few years - it's almost like Christmas.''
Sandy Chiera of Chesapeake strung her house with skeleton, witch and pumpkin lights.
She dyed the fountain in her yard blood red and converted the woods behind her house into a haunted forest filled with strobe lights, smoke machines and pyrotechnics.
``Grown-ups get to be little kids for a day,'' said Chiera. Last weekend, she was Chesapeake's Miss Piggy.
``You get to dress up and be what you're not,'' she said.
Charlie Brown and the Peanuts comic strip gang sliced eye-holes in sheets for costumes. But for adults, elaborate costumes are the norm.
``Halloween parties are more fashionable nowadays,'' said Judi Fields of Judi's Costume Shop in Newport News. ``It's more for adults nowadays than children.''
She caters mainly to adults. Folks started plunking down deposits on Robin Hood, knight and court jester costumes back in September.
At Party City, the ``Halloween Headquarters'' in Virginia Beach, aisles were jammed this week with adults scurrying to find a costume. Not for their kids but for their own parties.
Unlike little Jimmy who has to be Spider-Man, most adults aren't too particular.
``There's not one costume that's hotter than another. Adults really don't care, they're not after anything special,'' said Kathy Moss, district supervisor for Party City.
Pirates and their wenches, warlocks in flowing robes, cave men with clubs and Little Red Riding Hood - the possibilities are endless. ILLUSTRATION: Color Photos by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT\The Virginian-Pilot
[Tom Bell and Roxanne Verdon of Norfolk...]
[Mary and Mike McCaffrey of Norfolk...]
Color photo by Charlie Meads
[Edward Melendez tries on a mask...]
Photos by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT\The Virginian-Pilot
Adam Yanez, left, of Norfolk dressed up as coffee man Juan Valdez at
a costume party held at Norfolk's Nauticus. Nita Lapinski of
Virginia Beach went as a mermaid.
KEYWORDS: HALLOWEEN COSTUMES by CNB