The Burning

Friday at 6 o'clock was the set time for the burning of the costumes.  When I walked in the house, they were a lively group. All four Gingers were there in their uniforms ready to go.  (They call themselves the Gingers because three out of the four have red hair.)  Sarah's parents, the troop leaders, and brother were also there to join in the festivities.  I got there just in time to take pictures of them to send to Grandma before the burning occurred.  

Sarah's mom, Kristen, Julie, Sarah Price, and Sarah Logar pose for a picture in their unburned uniforms

I could tell they were dying to get those uniforms off to start burning and trashing them, but they took a couple minutes to perform a famous girl scouts' song, "Make New Friends," which they all had memorized.  

The girl scouts singing "Make New Friends"

After they had gotten out of their uniforms, there was some debate on where to actually burn the clothing.  A consensus was reached to do it in the living room.  They all spread out across the floor and started with their skirts.  Some opted for lighters while others used matches; they tried to figure out which one burned the clothes faster.  They would first cut the fabric and then rip a hole where they wanted it to be burned.  Price's mom smartly advised them to watch were they put the holes.  Price requested R. Kelly's song, "Burn It Up," to play in the background, which was very appropriate for the occasion. 

Kristen and Price got right to burning their skirts, while Julie seemed a little timid to take the lighter to the skirt in their house.

                                 Kristen concentrating on burning her skirt with a match

"I just see it all going wrong," she said.  "I am not a risk taker."

Sarah's father proved himself "wise beyond his years" when he suggested lighting a wine cork and then rubbing the ash on the uniforms.  

                   Logar  burning a cork that she had saved from her birthday to use on her skirt

Everything seemed to be going as planned, until a slight dilemma occurred. Beep! Beep! Beep! Only after five minutes of burning, they had set the smoke detector off!  It was loud enough to drown out the t.v., music, and everybody's conversations. Everyone bursted into laughter while Logar ran to the kitchen so she could get a towel to fan the alarm. After that fiasco was over, everyone decided to move outside on the porch.  It was so refreshing to walk outside and get some fresh air.  Let me tell you, burning clothes is not the most pleasant aroma there is.

                                  Logar attempting to fan the smoke detector with a dish towel

While outside, Sarah's mom told me they had four frozen boxes of real girl scout cookies to hand out on Halloween.  Her husband was planning on handing out popcorn, which are like the cookies for boy scouts.  

It was at this point the burning got out of control.  Ash was flying all over my notebook. The pyromaniacs started to come out.  They claimed the burning was "addicting."  They moved on from their skirts to their shirts and socks.  The fact that some had burned their thumbs around ten times with the lighter did not stop them; they were determined.  

                                      Kristen showing Sarah and Julie her burned shirt

And when the burning was sadly over, they moved to the mulched area in front of their house and rubbed their clothing in the dirt.  While Julie was rubbing her skirt in the dirt, I heard her say, "Oh my god, her poor grandma." Needless to say, they were somewhat worried about how they were going to smell on Halloween while feeling bad for destroying Sarah's grandma's hard work. 

                                   Kristen and Julie rubbing their socks and skirts in the dirt 

After an hour of burning, they realized they had destroyed their uniforms enough and decided to get ready for a fun Friday night uptown.  They told me to be there early in the morning on Saturday because they wanted to be ready and on Court Street at noon.  

Things do not go quite as they planned Saturday morning.  I texted Sarah around 11 o'clock because I had not heard from them, and she responded that the time was pushed back to 12:30. They were not going to reach their goal of being ready by noon.

When I got to the house, they were still waiting on Kristen and Julie to arrive.  Enrique Inglesias was blaring from Logar's room; the English version of the song would play first and then was followed by the Spanish version. Sarah's mom had already helped her tease her hair and do her makeup, but Logar's look was still in the works. 

The first step was teasing the hair, so it looked like she had been electrocuted, which, of course, involved a lot of hair spray.  Price offered to help, because she was obviously a pro at teasing by looking at her hair.  Logar seemed a little worried about the intense teasing.  She kept asking, "I am I going to have to cut her hair after this?"  However, she was extremely happy in the end when she saw how awesome, well how electrocuted, she looked.  

Price teasing the back of Logar's hair 

The next step involved applying heavy eyeliner all over Logar's face to resemble ash and just make her look overall distressed.  The girl scouts chose to use eyeliner instead of the cork's ashes because they felt it would be a better option for their skin; they did not want any funky rashes or breakouts. She told me that she was concerned about "looking dead" with the crazy makeup and teased hair.  

Sarah smudging eyeliner on her nose

Sarah decided to bypass wearing her hat and instead secured leaves and branches in her hair with bobby pins.  On one of the sticks, she added two miniature marshmallows on the end to signify the ever-important girl scout tradition of bonfires.  She didn't want to overdo it with the branches, leaves and a hat.  However, she did say her biggest fear of this costume is getting ticks from these leaves and branches.  She kept telling the other Sarah that she was going to have to check her for ticks. 

                        Sarah searching for leaves and sticks to attach to her hair in her front yard

                              Logar laughing while adding the campfire stick to her hair

It was around 1:30 when Logar was done becoming electrocuted, and Kristen and Julie were still M.I.A.  Since I still had two other groups to attend to, I told them to call me when they arrived so I could take pictures of their finished costumes.