When I was a child my grandma who was a seamstress had four trunks full of wonderful costumes. The trunks contained not only cast-off clothing, but many costumes in all sizes, and a load of fabulous accessories.  The costumes had been collected from theater and dance troupes,  costume shops, charity shops, and from the closets of relatives, friends and neighbors.

There were ethnic costumes representing several nationalities.  I could be a ballerina for there were real hand tutus. I could be Cleopatra or a belly dancer. I could be a Princess and wear a gorgeous embroidered ball gown. Or I could be a fairy and wear  gossamer wings.   I could choose from a vast array of women’s headwear ranging from wigs and hair pieces, and tiaras and crowns  to hats and veils.  There were many masks and some were beautifully bejeweled.

I loved rummaging through the  trunks and pulling out all treasures –  role-playing costume choices I could make for rainy day play times, masquerade parties, and for Halloween. I was an imaginative child and those rainy days and parties were perfect times to become someone or something else just for the night.

Many members of my family are dancers, actors and actresses, and all the women in my family have followed grandma’s costume trunks tradition. We rarely purchase any last minute Halloween costumes. We all love masquerade parties and Halloween and we can all sew.

Today I have those trunks that belonged to my grandmother. I take great delight in sharing the contents with friends and their kids on rainy days and on Halloween nights.  Some of the older clothes are gone now — mended until they were beyond repair and then torn apart to make other items. But every year the contents have grown as others have caught on to the idea of collecting as well as borrowing. When we find a special piece of odd ball clothing with costume potential at a garage sale or in a charity shop or in someone’s closet I tuck it away in the trunks.

Do you have a costume trunk?