My WORST Halloween Experience EVER

My children were in  a private grade school... the only one in town was Catholic (YIKES!!!), and the school was hosting a Halloween party, in which all of the children and parents were supposed to come in costume.

Well, I made my oldest son the Holy Ghost (which was okay because he just looked like a ghost), my daughter a big, fat pumpkin, and my youngest son a robot.  (There was going to be a best-costume contest, and my daughter actually won!)

Anyway, I wanted my husband and me to dress up like Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben (Are we detecting a little political incorrectness here?), but he refused to go in costume, and took the kids to the party ahead of me.  I did the whole Aunt Jemima thing... after, all I had a picture on a box of pancake mix to get it right... So I dressed up and went to the party.

Have you ever had one of those "Uh-Oh" experiences, where you knew that you had screwed up REALLY badly?  Well, that was one of mine.  The party had been blasting music, people were laughing and talking, and when I walked into the room, there was DEAD SILENCE... You could've heard a pin drop.  Not to be one to run and hide, I just shouted, "Happy Halloween everybody!", and sought out my family's table... and the party continued, despite my presence.

I endured all sorts of dirty looks from the 'party people' for a couple of hours (especially from the one black couple that was there), and finally, the the Irish parish priest came over to me and told me that he just HAD to meet the woman who would come to a function like this dressed as Aunt Jemima.  I must admit that I felt a little better about the situation then, but man...Did I EVER get it from my husband and his relatives when I got home.

I still can't understand why it was such a big deal...some woman at the party dressed up like a fat, huge-boobed toothless Oakie, and that should have been offensive to big, fat, hige-boobed toothless people... BUT NO... just because I dared to be black, I was an outcast.  I think we've lost our sense of humour in this country... But hey...it's okay for Robert Downey Jr. to play a black guy in 'Tropic Thunder'.  Maybe I was just a couple of decades ahead of my time.