Halloween high jinks by adults is nothing new, as we can see in this photo of the Paris Company Department Store staff in 1946. However, this fun snapshot does give us a fairly rare chance to see older women dressed in Halloween finery.
The ones in the back row have taken an easy route, dressing with full coverage in olden time outfits. Perhaps they had them in their closets already, remnants from older relatives. In the second row, right, one has donned a Charlie Chaplin style tramp ensemble. And in the front row center there are two middle aged women, perhaps not yet fifty, dressed like a milk maid (or waitress?) and a cow girl.
However, the boldest one of all is in the middle row, left, in her old fashioned bathing suit. It took a lot of courage to show so much skin, and the outlines of a plumper body under it. Do you think these hobgoblins made their way out onto the shop floor?
This picture is posed, but seems to have caught some employees off guard. Lots of stories in this picture. I first noticed the only male (I think, but can’t be sure) in the middle row who seems to be taking a special interest in the woman on the bottom left, blissfully unconcerned that he is intruding on the personal space of the women sitting to his right. Also, the two women on the bottom row right are mirroring each others body language, and seem especially close.