Rummaging through the kitchen cabinets one morning a few years back, Sam pulled out a pair of black plastic mixing bowls and stuck one on his head. That was the last day those mixing bowls lived in the kitchen. Right then and there, they became essential pieces of a makeshift knight costume that Sam (and Cargo) wore around the apartment for months. He’d have gone to the park wearing the black mixing bowl if I’d let him, but a sunhat seemed a better idea on a hot day.
The bowl-turned-helmet was always pulled low over his eyes in an attempt to achieve the look Shrek sports while rescuing Princess Fiona from the highest room in the tallest tower. Of course, this tactic made it rather difficult for Sam to see where he was going, so eventually I had to coax that length of metal dowel (where did that come from?) out of his hands in favour of the relatively harmless yard stick. From the kitchen, I often heard the sounds of helmet and sword bouncing off the walls, the radiator, the fireplace, the dining room table, the computer desk. Sir Sam’s valiant quests were tough on the décor, though he seemed to weather them well.
These days, Sam has an old steam trunk overflowing with costumes. A lot of it is cool head gear: pirate skull caps, a fireman helmet, a construction worker’s hard hat, scary masks, a sombrero, hooded robes—even a knight’s helmet (and visor!) complete with a matching breast plate, cape and sword. But I’m pretty sure that years from now, when I recall how much Sam liked to dress up in costumes to play as a child, the image that’ll first spring to mind is that of two-year-old boy with a mixing bowl on his head charging through an imaginary world and running headlong into the solid one.
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