costume mishap --> altered persona
"I am a man of the people. The people of Cal-i-fornia."
~Zorro
Well, this Halloween, I wasn't a man for the people of California, but I was an educator for the children of the Olympic Peninsula. Though not my usual self. In fact, a misplaced bandana led to a two-day long social experiment with a few amusing results. Read on below for more!
Last weekend, for the local Halloween party, I dressed up as Zorro. For the past almost 2 months, I'd been growing out my beard so I could trim it down to a Zorro mustache with plenty of length to curl the sides up with adequate flair. Well, I guess I should have gotten some mustache wax, because my hair goo wasn't up to the task...but it was close. One of my more successful costumes in recent memory, it included the hat and cape (which I rented from a costume shop nearby), black bandana with eye holes (pilfered) button-down vest, black shirt with poofy sleeves and black pants (goodwill), calf-high leather boots to tuck my pants into (my own) and a thin-bladed French sword (local pawn shop...not quite a foil, but the closest I could find). A way fun party with live music the first half and then great dance mix the second.
But the real fun begins wednesday. We had two programs this week, both from Sequim Middle School, with half the 6th graders mon-wed, and the other half wed-fri. Wednesday was what we call a crossover day, because one group left as another arrived, and we had but an hour to recuperate and re-energize before grabbing another group and beginning to teach. Wednesday was also Halloween.
I had planned to be Zorro again for the kids, though with black waders and rain pants, a shorter cape, and only the bandana with eye-holes and no hat. But in the morning, I couldn't find my bandana, and had to get to work...so no Zorro. Instead I donned a short cape with a Harry Potter "Gryffindor" crest, and apparently looked like a Seeker with that, my red soft-shell jacket, and black leather driving gloves. That was the morning. The experiment began during the crossover.
Excited to mix up my costume, I looked through the costume box and found several items which, together, changed my look quite a bit:
Item one: thick plastic-framed glasses, with non-prescription lenses, meaning they looked like real glasses.
Item two: an old, trucker-style Pac-Man hat.
Item three: lavender-colored ear-muffs.
Item four: a wool jacket, short, with buttons and a belt-buckle wrap around the waist, kind of like some sort of air force meets gamer jacket.
All together, I looked a little ridiculous. But I decided to have a bit of an experiment. Since these kids had never met me, I decided not only to be in costume, but to alter my entire persona, and continue the experiment thursday as though I wasn't in costume at all on wednesday. So I spoke a bit higher, talked faster, got excited at decidedly nerdy things (well, even more-so than usual) and changed the gait of my walk.
The next step was that night, when I dressed up as an old man as part of our night-hike evening program. With an enormous gray beard, wig, and "old man" makeup, barely any of my face was visible and in the dark I led 4 groups of kids (1 group at a time) to the dock to tell the story of the Lady of the Lake. Marissa dressed up as the Lady, and hid in the canoe next to the dock, and at the appropriate point sat up and scared the heck out of the kids, before calming their fears by explaning that she's a friendly ghost. It was great. And, none of the kids knew who I was. At all.
The next day, I returned to my daytime-dorky persona, and when a few kids asked if I was at the night hike I told them no, I had the night off, which they believed. So I stayed in character the whole day.
This morning, I showed up at morning meeting to tell my kids where to meet me when dismissed -- sans glasses, and also with my mustache shaved off, and with a beanie rather than the trucker hat. When I walked in, gave a quick direction in my normal, lower voice, and then walked out, I heard several kids ask "Hey! Where's Yoshi??" Perfect.
When we met up, I told them I celebrate halloween on fridays, and this was my costume. I got a few head scratches at that. Successful experiment? Check. More analysis of change in social interaction due to different personas pending, for I must be leaving.
