Back in the early to mid-70's, my friends and I were crazy about Marvel Comics and their stable of characters. In fact, we were so crazy about them, we'd always want to dress up as those characters for Trick-or-Treating. Imagine our delight when we came across this ad appearing in October 1975 issues of Marvel Comics:
Priced at a mere $2.79 each, we could look like our favorite heroes for Halloween. Just think (we thought), in the dim evening light, we might even be mistaken for the real deals, appearing more like the ghosted hero images in the ad than mere children!
But then, depressing reality would soon settle in, as we all remembered that wearing cool trick-or-treat costumes in northern Minnesota was a near impossibility.
You see, it can get nasty cold the final week of October in the Great Northland. It wasn't unusual for the first snowfall to have already occurred once Halloween rolled around, so naturally all good moms and dads would stave off frostbite and frozen death by almost completely obscuring our costumes with winter jackets, hats, snowpants, scarves, mittens, and boots.
"But mom!...Spider-Man doesn't wear a hat or a jacket!"
To which mom would calmly reply, "He does if he wants to go trick-or-treating."
"Awww, mom!"
Of course, after visiting the first few houses, the costume controversy was soon forgotten. Massive amounts of free candy have a way of doing that.
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I recall a excellent home-made Batman-esque outfit that included earwarmers in the cowl. Thanks mom!
But I can remember some other costumes that had to be hidden in the cold of Minnesota by cold-weather gear. Remember your layers!
Posted by: Greg Walter | October 14, 2007 at 03:58 PM
LOL! Ah...a fellow Minnesotan! You know of what I speak!
Darn moms....didn't they know a cool costume was worth a little hypothermia or frostbite?
Posted by: Mark Engblom | October 14, 2007 at 09:34 PM
Good lord, I could have written this blog. I'm an Iron Ranger who remembers my cool costume being ruined by the need to wear a heavy jacket.
Posted by: Gus | March 15, 2011 at 11:24 AM
Dear Mark,
How may I get permission to use the Joy Buzzer ad from your site in my book on New Jersey inventions? Thanks for any help you can provide.
Linda J. Barth
barths@att.net
Posted by: Linda Barth | April 30, 2013 at 08:11 AM