Op-Ed: Become a Halloween hero — be your neighborhood’s full-size house monster
Published: Saturday, Nov. 27, 2012 10:58 a.m. CST
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For some who lived through the Halloween massacre, Halloween is just another day. For others, it’s the anniversary of that day. For some, it’s a once-a-year treat when the neighborhood is quiet, and a chance to show off for themselves.
For others, it’s an opportunity to share some of what they’ve done on the side so far this year for Halloween: decorations, or costumes that have been handed down from one year to the next.
“I think it’s a lot of fun,” said Scott Fogle, who came up with the idea of designing costumes for his wife. “Some of it was for the neighbors, some of it was for me. It has really opened up my creativity.”
Fogle, of Rockport, Minn., created the outfit of a mummy and wore that for 14 years. “It’s a pretty awesome costume,” he said.
For years, he made his wife’s costumes up, one year for a Halloween party, one for an outing to the pumpkin patch and the same outfit for a family get-together. But as the years went by, they wanted to “do something with it,” he said.
That year, she came up with the idea of getting a second costume for Halloween, but decided her husband could make up one. She was so pleased with the costume, she asked about getting it done as a full-size house monster — or house spider, as she referred to it.
His idea took about six months to put together, he said. He started from the bottom and worked his way up because he wanted to get those final details right, such as the eyes. “I just wanted the eyes to be the biggest eyes,” he said.
Fogle said he plans on passing it down in the family for a few more years.
The cost of the house monster costume was about $500, which Fogle said was about $250 for materials and about $150 for the custom sewing. “We don’t spend a whole lot on things like this,” he said.
“There’s stuff I do to make money,” Fogle said. “I make some stuff for other people on occasion. Stuff in the garage sells.