Pee Wee Herman: Memories of a Halloween dance

Pee Wee Herman in the '80s.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news

(May be subject to copyright)

It was my first Halloween away from home, October 31, 1987, and I was going to my first Halloween dance. When I popped out of the elevator on the ground floor of Kelsey Hall, I saw him. It was unmistakable, haunting actually.

The image is burned in my brain.

Standing there at the edge of a wing called “The Dungeon” was Pee Wee Herman, right down to the bike.

It was one of the best Halloween costumes I have ever seen to this date.

With the news yesterday of the passing of Paul Ruebens, the man who brought Pee Wee Herman to life, I was reminded of that time so long ago.

On the big screen
The phenomenon of Pee Wee Herman completely escaped me. “Pee Wee’s Playhouse” was not on Channel 7, 9 or 13, and I had no idea what it was until one Saturday night.

I used to watch this show called, simply, “The Movie Show” on Channel 7. It was produced by Channel 7 in Calgary and hosted by Larry Day and Kirstie McLellan, who would later marry.

One night, they reviewed this new movie called “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure”. I really had no idea what they were talking about, but was intrigued by the title character who had almost white skin, a suit, bow tie and reminded me of an adult version, kind of, of Alfalfa from “The Little Rascals”.

It was a surprise hit in the summer of 1985, and would spawn a sequel, “Big Top Pee Wee” in 1988, but I would never see either movie or the TV show.

Yet, I got a good look at Pee Wee Herman, which was useful in the Fall of 1987.

First dance
My first year of university was life altering in so many ways. Early on, the floor I lived on bonded and we had a lot of great times, that first three months of the school year.

Perhaps my favourite event at that time was the dance. They were big productions held in the Lister Hall dining hall which was massive, holding about 400 people.

I was excited for the Halloween dance. Never much of a dresser upper, I thought I would wear what I did the previous year in Grade 12 to my high school Halloween dance. That was a tribute to Hawkeye Pierce of “M*A*S*H” where I donned a cowboy hat, shades, and wore my bath robe. It went over well at Kate Andrews High School.

So, it was on my way to the dance, when I saw that student, James, dressed as Pee Wee Herman, and I just smiled.

When we got to the base of the stairs to the cafeteria, I started walking up them. This girl came out of the cafeteria, looked at me and squawked “What are you supposed to be?”

Already insecure about many things, and actually this costume as well, I just turned around, went back to my room, changed into something “normal” and went back to the dance. I had a great time because it was a great atmosphere.

But I never dressed up for a dance again.

Parting thoughts
It’s funny how things can sit with you. That girl – whose name I recall and I would get to know over the next three years – crushed me with a passing, drive-by comment. It actually turned me off dressing up, although it wasn’t much of a turn off because I was not really into dressing up anyway.

For the record, I did dress up one more time, in 1991. I had been tending bar at our student pub “The Ship”, where I wore Hawaiian shorts as my own, unofficial uniform. Some of the people said I looked like Thomas Magnum, of "Magnum, P.I." fame, because of those shirts. So, that Halloween, I used some mascara to make my moustache black, got a Detroit Tigers hat and went as Thomas Magnum. That was marginally more effort than dressing up as Hawkeye Pierce. The funniest part of that night was Jason Wregget, a floormate of mine, dressed up as me for Halloween, but that is another story.

Anyway, that memory is obscured.

James dressing up as Pee Wee Herman is a much stronger memory because his costume was perfect.

He was Pee Wee Herman.

And that reminded me of just how much fun those dances always were.