Halloween 2025

Tl;Dr: Edwin P. Abbott Jr, furloughed park ranger. And the love child of Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons

When I was in Junior Highschool my band instructor always had awesome halloween costumes – one memorable year he went as a Rock Lobster. He was great. He inspired me to make fun costumes, which I did for many years. I’ve gone as:

• A piece of sushi (college – spur of the moment costume)
• The Hindenburg disaster (at Apex learning – with army dudes on dental floss that fell out of the hinged body)
• A Kelp Forest with helium balloons holding crepe paper over my head
• A sock puppet theater

Perhaps I will remember more some day, I hope so. Seems like I had some good ones.

This I went at a Furloughed National Park Service ranger. In part it was a vague political statement (at least I hope to remind people that we are living in an insane time). But mostly it was inspired by reading Desert Solitaire and The Monkey Wrench Gang written by Edward Abbey. Edwin shows up as a character in the Monkey Wrench Gang – a park ranger that investigates the gang. If the name seems strikingly similar to Ed Abbey I think that’s on purpose.

I managed to find most of the clothing at the Goodwill, including the Flat Cap used by rangers. Badges and labels were printed on the laser printer and then taped to card stock. Cardboard sign was… sharpied.

Marcie went as an 80s fitness instructor. LOL.

I learned a lot about the park ranger uniform in the process, pretty fascinating. Here’s some background reading for the curious: https://dougiedoesmonuments.com/2023/10/15/the-national-park-service-uniform/

https://www.parksconservancy.org/gateways-article/what-is-story-iconic-nps-ranger-flat-hat

And for those with a lot of time on your hands…

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/hfc/upload/No-2_In-Search-of-an-Identity.pdf