Y? Because it’s time…

This aging this is a mind blower. You just never know when a realization that you’ve been around a spell is gonna sneak up on you.

I debated pretty much until the last minute whether or not I was going to dress up for our church’s Harvest Party this past Sunday. Last year only a couple of adults dressed up and I felt bad for those that did, looking around the sanctuary in their Laura Ingalls bonnets, wondering if they got the date wrong. So late Saturday night, I rounded up the parts and pieces of my old standby “go to” Halloween costume, just in case the spirit moved me to dress up on Sunday.

And so that is how I ended up dressed as a Mouseketeer in church.

It is a costume I first concocted just a few years ago, in college. Zeke and I enjoyed a Spring Break LA-Style which resulted in my purchase of a Mickey Mouse sweatshirt and Minnie Mouse socks and, of course, personalized Mickey Ears. Add a black skirt and black shoes and voila, cutesy Mouseketeer! That was 1988.

I’ve lost track how many times I’ve worn this tried-and-true costume on Halloween over the years. It’s so dang comfy! And cute! And, this year, church appropriate! Over the years I added Mickey Mouse earrings and a name tag. At some point, the skirt was replaced. Something about weight gain. And the shoes have varied. And somewhere along the line, the Mouse Ears were replaced by a set I got when Rob and I went to Disneyland the first (ok, only) summer we were dating. You know, just a few years ago, in 1990.

The first whiff of my aging reality hit Sunday morning as I was admiring my Ears sitting in my lap on our way to church. “35 Years of Magic!” the front exclaimed. Remembering that date with Rob in the Summer of ’90 well, I quickly did the math and realized that Disneyland is currently in its 56th Year of Magic.

Oh, boy.

Then, as people trickled into the sanctuary, I was pleased to see smiles of recognition at my costume. Well, what I thought was recognition. You see, I quickly discovered it’s been a long while since “Mouseketeer” has been in the public inventory of knowledge. Even several uber Disney fans, somewhere between my age and my parents’, took a few seconds of processing before exclaiming wistfully, “OH, that’s right! I remember Mouseketeers!” I started to wonder if perhaps my Always Reliable Costume was suddenly out of date?

Then a nice woman in her 50s admired my Ears and asked if they were vintage. Vintage?? Having not been to Disneyland in over a decade, I was not aware that the current crop of Everyday Ears is evidently pretty flimsy. “They aren’t nearly as nice now as those,” she admired, pointing at my head. She wasn’t the only one who seemed to know at a glance that my ears were from a time before now.

Oh, boy.

The curtain was drawn when a sweet 7-year-oldish girl came excitedly over to me.

“I know what you are! You’re Minnie Mouse!!”

“Almost!” I replied with a smile. “I am actually a Mouseketeer!”

And then to her blank stare I started explaining the concept of a Mouseketeer, complete with references to a kid’s television show her grandparents (!!) may have watched. A show with teenagers who danced and sang and were part of a club excited about Mickey Mouse. The second-grader continued to stare at me and her head tilted slightly.

I managed to stop myself and my explanation before bragging that my dad once took dance lessons from Bobby, the cute one on the show. And I thankfully knew better than to try to relate to her by mentioning that both Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears had been Mouseketeers in a questionably relevant revamp back in the ‘90s.

Almost too late, I realized that it was probably best just to be Minnie Mouse. So I corrected myself and told the young girl yes, I was Minnie. She seemed pleased again and skipped away while I suddenly stood in the very real awareness that my once obvious costume now required lots of explanation.

When we got home, I had Rob take a picture of me. Me the last time as a Mouseketeer. It was a good run. A good 23 year run.

Oh, dear.