Sun interview shines on Caitlin Munn

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/10/2016 (3484 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

So you are — is it fair to say? — a self-professed Halloween junkie? Halloween fanatic?

Absolutely. I love it! I look forward to it every year. It’s always so much fun to decide what costumes I’m going to pick. And I find it’s become even more fun now, because I can partner up with a colleague who has the same passion for Halloween as I do. Before, I was just doing individual costumes, so it’s nice to do group costumes now.

Let’s go back to childhood. I loved Halloween. I still love it. The homemade costumes that my dad made and trick-or-treating — I loved it all. Did you go through the same kind of thing?

Totally. And I think that’s where I got the passion for it. My mom and I have talked about this a lot because she made all our costumes every year. We could pick whatever we wanted — it could be as extravagant as we wanted — and she would spend weeks if she needed to, or months if she needed to, making them for us. So we were always those kids who had the stunning costumes because my mom was just willing to put as much work into them as was necessary.

So she was a huge Halloween fan as well?

For us. She would never dress up. But she would dress us up.

Isn’t that interesting. Did you ever ask her why?

I think she doesn’t like being the centre of attention. But, even with trick-or-treating, she would buy little bags and fill them with candies, school supplies, little toys — she would go full out. And kids knew that’s where you got an awesome package of goodies.

So did you think Halloween was cool, too, or was this all spurred by your mom’s dedication to it?

I think it was all her. We had really great costumes as kids so we just continued doing it.

Your mom must have been quite a seamstress.

Yes. Very much so.

And did she pass that love of sewing on to you?

I’m not as skilled in sewing, that’s for sure. But I can kind of create and pin together. But on any costumes I have personally made, I’ve never used a sewing machine because I don’t know how (laughs). One day I will learn. But my mother, she would sew everything.

Over the years, including childhood or school stuff, did you always win all the contests and those sorts of things?

It was funny because when we were kids, they didn’t actually have a contest. We would all just get dressed up and go parading.

What were some of your favourite costumes? I’m betting you likely love them all. But Im sure there were a few standouts.

The one year when I was quite little, I was an apple and I really liked it. It was full 3D apple! My mom used a pool with a noodle inside of it and then my one arm was a little worm that came out of the side. It was super cute.

One of the funniest ones — my brother and I went as a caveman and cavewoman. And when we went door to door, it was about the time The Spice Girls were really popular. So the one woman answered the door and said, “Are you guys Spice Girls?” and my brother was mortified and he just ran home.

Another year I was Princess Peach from Mario and I really liked that, because we went down to the States and bought one of those giant, elaborate prom dresses that was hot pink. And it was on a clearance rack at Sears for about $50, and I was like, ‘Now I’m Princess Peach!’

The first one my colleague and I did together when I came to Brandon, we did pop-art paintings. So I think that one’s my favourite.

Do you keep the costumes? Or do you remake them into other things?

That’s a good question. I actually — this is going to be a dorky one — when my work partner and I were the characters from “How to Train Your Dragon,” it had a lot of fake fur and my cats really liked it. So I made it into a cat bed afterward! So a lot of my costumes, sometimes friends would have taken them if they had to go to a work party or something like that. I had a lot of little cousins, so my mom would often take our costumes and give them to them after Halloween. So someone would get to use them later.

Was there any costume you ever hated? That sort of let you down?

I think the one I regretted when I was younger — it was probably about middle school age — I thought it would be really funny to be a cow. So I dressed up as a cow and then all the kids teased me because I didn’t put the udder on it because I thought it would look so silly. And I still remember one kid who was The Grim Reaper chasing me around and saying, ‘I’m going to make you into hamburger!’ So that’s the only one I regretted.

I know from performing on stage, which I’ve done for a long time, you get to sort of become another person for that time, but you learn the part and it’s an extended run. But this is a lot of work for a single day. Do you make the rounds of social events or parties or bars or things like that? Or is this just something that you show up to work in?

Just show up to work. I think I just like the process of thinking what I’m going to do. And I usually pick something that I really enjoy. It’s just kind of fun to go around and see what other people have done. And it’s been great pairing up with my colleague because she wants to take it to the same level I do, which is usually more than most people do.

You must put in tons of work on these outfits, just like your mom did, and yet you just wear them for a short time. Do you just get a great sense of satisfaction from having put together something that makes people stop and take notice?

I think so. Because I think a part of it is that I’ve always really liked artistic and creative things.

So unlike your mom, you’re obviously not at all worried about being in the spotlight, or drawing attention to yourself?

It’s just one day a year. Because usually I don’t want to be the centre of attention ever. But on Halloween, I guess because I’m dressed up like something else, especially because it’s something I really like, then it’s OK for just that one day.

Now I’m going to ask you, but I’m betting you’re not going to tell me, what you’re dressing up as this year.

I will only give you a clue, which is it’s something that is from my childhood that I absolutely love that has recently had a resurgence. So I’ll leave it there.

Does your husband enjoy Halloween as much as you do?

It’s interesting because my husband and I always joke about all the hilarious couples’ costumes we could do, but he says never ever in a million years would I ever get him dressed up in one. And I guess that’s because for me, it’s never just enough to get by. If I’m going to do it, I’m going to go completely full out.

So were you ever into the scary, creepy, death-related, back-from-the-grave, dark side of Halloween?

No scary or gory Halloween for me. I scare so easily and can’t even make it through a horror or Halloween film. I think the last one I ever watched was “Scream” and that was so many years ago. Maybe when I was 12?

When we decorated our house years ago for Halloween it was about fun and very much centred around an engaging experience for the trick-or-treaters without scaring them. So elaborate pumpkins — we spent hours and hours on them — cute Casper-style ghosts and mildly spooky skeletons. Nothing that would ever be scary, but had a little spookiness to it. When I think Halloween, I think pumpkins and candy and fun. No gory and scary for me.

As I said, all my costumes centred around things I enjoyed, like video game characters, or unique costumes — making pop art paintings come to life. I never had a scary one once! I think that’s because since I was a child, Halloween costumes were about having fun and putting smiles on others’ faces. As children to mid-teens, my brother and I would go in costume to visit our grandmother at the nursing home and visit all the tenants there. They looked forward to it every year. We’d help the nursing home staff put on a Halloween party and help run things such as Halloween bingo. And at school, we would do the parade down the streets. So I suppose scary and gory would take away from that for me.

As a student teacher in teachers’ college, I would dress up in whatever the students were really interested in. It was fun to spark a conversation about something educational. One year I dressed up as Rosie the Riveter and it became an amazing educational opportunity for the class because we were learning about the world wars. If I ever returned to the classroom as a teacher, I would most definitely be dressing up as Miss Frizzle from the Magic School Bus!

Were you ever scared as a kid by anybody else’s Halloween pranks?

When I was about 10, we were trick-or-treating and stopped at a really scarily decorated house. Going up the driveway, a man jumped out of his truck bed dressed as a monster. I remember screaming and running home crying. For me, it was so odd and unsettling because for my family, Halloween was never about scaring others. It was about fun. And perhaps my family knows what a scaredy cat I am, so they’d never try to frighten me.

One last thought: I realize, in reflection, that Halloween is just another chance to celebrate creativity, have fun with others and put a smile on someone’s face. I learned this from my mother who would go above and beyond so we had an amazing Halloween memory. She also applied this approach to birthdays, too, where she would spend weeks making the most elaborate hand-made piñatas you’ll ever see. I’m talking a life-sized mermaid one year. Or a cake that was a carousel. Or the Halloween goody bags she’d assemble by hand. And these are some of my greatest childhood memories. I’ve even had peers from elementary school tell me years later that these are some of their favourite memories, too.

So when I think Halloween, I immediately think of all these great memories. I think that’s why I put all the work into it, because it’s a great memory and a fun time. I want to share that with others, too, because I think I’m so fortunate to have had that experience myself.