Brown Sugar

Davy Crockett, Johnny Appleseed, a cowboy, and a jester - those are this year's costume choices at our house.

When I was a kid you had to dress as something thematically associated with Halloween, or with autumn at the very least. I was a scarecrow, black cat, witch, ghost. One year my sister was an apple core, another, an ear of corn (she had a fruit and vegetable theme going or something.)

Every year I secretly yearned to be a gypsy or a hippie like every other girl in my class but I never went as far as to buck tradition.

H is being Davy Crockett. We bought a real (yes real) raccoon tail at the Fryeburg Fair and I sewed it onto an appropriately-shaped faux fur hat. The cat freaked out while I was sewing the tail, she kept trying to grab it and run off with it or at least locate the rest of the raccoon.

Anyway, the hat's done and he's got the rifle replica, really once you've got a coonskin hat, who else could you be but Davy Crockett? Costume done right? 

Not so fast. 

I wanted him to have a brown fringe shirt. He's to short for the jacket I bought in college, which would have been perfect (I guess I should dress as Davy Crockett for Halloween) so I figured I could just get a brown shirt, make my own fringe, and sew it on.

After checking thrift shops, Walmart, TJMaxx, and of course my own attic, I can safely say that brown is the least popular color for a shirt on the planet. Walmart has t-shirts and long sleeve t-shirts in every color; there's even a section of neon colors, every color but brown that is.

I looked on-line thinking I could get a brown fleece from LLBean. No brown. I googled "kids brown shirt," I got t-shirts for the Cleveland Browns. I googled "kids chocolate shirts," in case they weren't calling brown, brown any more, i.e. eggplant for purple and slate for gray, I got t-shirts with picture of Hershey kisses on them.

Authentic raccoon tail? No problem. Brown shirt? Not on your life. 

song: Brown Sugar • artist: The Rolling Stones