Halloween costumes in the 80s were terrifyingly terrible.
Halloween has come a long way since the 70s and 80s, when Gen X kids donned the worst mass-produced costumes known to man to go out and ask strangers for candy that we were sure was laced with poison or razor blades. Those sure were good times, though, weren't they? Social media creator Kelly Manno shared a video describing what Halloween was like for kids who grew up in "the forgotten generation," and holy moly is it accurate.
First, Manno showed a photo of someone dressed in an "80s costume" for Halloween, with neon colors and legwarmers and big hair, and said, "Absolutely nobody looked like that in the 80s, especially on Halloween. We looked like this."
Then she showed a grainy photo of kids in the plastic masks and poorly printed costumes that were the hallmark of the age.
"Every single member of Gen X can smell this photo," she said. "It's like a vinyl, like plasticky paint smell."
Manno explained that our parents only took a few photos of us per year, and Halloween was always one of them.
"You knew, before you went out trick-or-treating, that you had to line up with your cousins in front of the fireplace, in your highly flammable costumes, with your mom chain-smoking Virginia Slims.'"
Oh, those masks were the worst inventions ever. The eyeholes never lined up properly, so you were constantly trying to adjust them to be able to see even a little bit.
"We would push our tongue through the slit in the mask. It would cut our tongue, but then we'd keep doing it again because we were eaten up with OCD and ADD and nobody cared."
Then Manno described the "garbage bag costumes" we had, which were basically trash bags printed with whatever character it was supposed to be. So janky. So sweaty. So crinkly when we walked. But somehow still socially preferable to your mom making your costume from scratch.
"Look at us, we were terrifying," Manno concludes. "No wonder people tried to poison us."
Her descriptions of what it felt like to trick-or-treat in those costumes and haul our own bodyweight in candy are spot on, and people who lived it are feeling the nostalgia.
"So much truth in one video! 😂 I just saw, heard, and smelled my childhood."
"You are literally making me laugh so damn hard, cause you described it exactly as it was, but my mom smoked Winston's!"
"It was always freezing on Halloween that the vinyl/plastic suit would crack and tear halfway through the night."
"Or the rubber band breaking at the second house and you had to hold it up on your face at the door the rest of the night. 😂 Good times."
"The tongue thing is on point. I can still feel it. 😂"
"I can totally smell that picture lol. I remember the steam from inside the mask would have your lashes and eyebrows covered in dew then after a couple streets of running house to house the crotch would tear out. We would stay out until everybody turned their lights off and the pillow case was full."
"Yes!!!! And we used a pillow case for our candy. And no adult supervision."
"My mom made me really nice homemade costumes, but I remember begging for the plastic Strawberry Shortcake garbage bag one. So, she bought it for me one year. That was a terrible, sweaty experience. 😂"
"Let’s not forget having to inspect every piece of candy for razor blades. I swear I lost half my haul to my father in that clean up. 🍬 🍫 😢"
Kids these days have no idea, with their official city trick-or-treat hours and their parents walking around with them and their costumes that actually look like the thing they're trying to be. The 70s and 80s were a wild time, and as funny as it is to reminisce about those Halloweens of old, most of us would agree that the experience has been much improved for our own kids.
Pillowcases still make the best trick-or-treat bags, though. Some things do not change.
This article originally appeared last year.