It's been awhile since I've contributed to the newsletter. I shared this story a few years ago, but thought people wouldn't mind taking a trip down memory lane with me. When my son was 4 years old, I asked him what he wanted to dress up as for Halloween. He said 'Barney'. Well, he being in pre-school, I thought he meant 'Barney' the big purple dinosaur (does that even come on anymore??). I am the type of mother who enjoys homemade costumes. Ones that are created from trips to the thrift store & etc. (Very little sewing though.) I tried to change his mind, since I had no idea how I was going to make a 'Barney' costume. He insisted that he wanted to be 'Barney'. So, even though I was disappointed, I took him to the store to pick out a 'Barney' costume. As soon as we hit the costume aisle, I spotted one in his size. I showed it to him & he said "No. "Barney! The funny policeman on TV." My heart must have skipped a beat! I was thrilled that he meant him & not that dinosaur. It was a fun challenge to put together a costume that looked like a deputy sheriff. He already had a pair of khaki pants, a toy gun with a holster (it was western looking, but it didn't matter), handcuffs & a star badge. I found a women's sized small khaki oxford shirt at the Goodwill store. I washed it in hot water (to shrink it as much as possible), cut the sleeves off & made false cuffs using the iron on fusing tape. (I did sew on a couple of buttons on the sleeves) I also picked up a thin, black tie (very retro) while there. I had pack of black iron-on repair patches on hand (he's always been rough on the knees of jeans, still is) & cut one in the shape of police dept. patch. I used a white art pen & wrote 'Mayberry Sheriff Department' on it. I drew an outline of NC in the middle of it & put a dot where I thought the town of Mayberry would be. On the other sleeve, I ironed on a USA flag patch. The hat was the hardest part of the ensemble. I finally found a little boys plastic, policeman hat at a party supply place. But it was blue. So bought a little bottle of nude craft paint (cheap!). I already had black paint at home. I had to add a little black to it in order to get it to a more of a khaki shade. I sprayed the hat with some primer that that I had on hand. It's the kind that won't let color through (Kilz?) I painted the hat. I wanted to find a cheap, plastic silver badge & hot glue it to the front of the hat, but wasn't able to. Didn't matter. The final touch was a bullet that he carried in his pocket. (Our policeman neighbor gave it to him) My son was very proud of his costume. He won a costume contest at his pre-school & was a big hit wherever he went trick-or-treating. When people asked him who he was, he would simply say "Barney." & would pull the bullet of of his pocket to show to them. A few people took his picture at the Halloween festival in our town. That's been 10 years ago. He'll be 14 years old on Tuesday & still remembers dressing up as 'Barney'. He still goes trick-or-treating with his buddies. I asked him the other day if he wanted to dress up as 'Barney' again this year. He replied "No. I've already done that." He hasn't made up his mind what he's going to dress up as, but it will be something that he & I create together. I hope that this hasn't been too long, but thought I would go into a little detail in case someone's little boy says he wants to be 'Barney'.
"We're not spring chickens anymore!" 'Peaches' Gordon Kernersville, NC _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list [email protected] http://wbmutbb.com/mailman/listinfo/wbmutbb_wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
