Halloween 1983 in New Jersey

Oct 31, 2020

I recently received a box of random photos from my family. While sorting them I kept finding photos of people in Halloween costumes. Its not a large collection, but its a pretty great snapshot of some of the local Halloween trends around 1982 and 1983.

All the photos come from a New Jersey elementary school Halloween parade and the brief Halloween class time that follows.

I haven’t seen a school Halloween Parade in a while. For those not familiar, all the kids in the school would walk around the neighborhood and parents and interested onlookers would stand around cheering and clapping. If you were a kid, it made you feel like a million bucks. Even if you were wearing a 99 cent costume.

You might notice a lack of masks. This is no coincidence. Around this time, the dangers of reduced visibility while wearing masks was all over the news. Makeup and simpler costumes were all the rage that year.

The very next year, masks made a comeback, but I think Glowsticks were being pushed to increase visibility at night. Running around at night with those sticks is a great memory.

Enough of my nostalgia. Here are the photos, enjoy.

Our president at the time, Ronald Reagan. These masks were popular for a few years. I like the addition of the little American flag. Just in case you didn’t realize who it was.

Zorro! I loved Zorro and this costume is great. I love the red pom-poms and the drawn-on facial hair. Also pictured is an old person mask and a very smiley adult in the background.

Potato quality photo, but I wanted to include it because it illustrates how terrible it could be taking photos with a film camera. So many of my family’s photo look like this.

A great photo. We got some colored “punk-style” hair and a cutoff “Break Dance” shirt. I think the tall kid in the background is supposed to be a Secret Service Agent.

Amazing make-up work here. I saw a similar look on make-up packages and always wanted to try this. The robe and amulet really put the whole thing over the top.