Keepin’ it Local: Dress Up in Rhody Pride

It’s All Hallow’s Eve in Li’l Rhody and you feel like it’s a little hollowed out. But with a bit of creativity, you can get spooky like a Rhode Islander and show your local pride.

Rhode Island has plenty of local landmarks to choose from that provide fantastic costume inspiration. Get creative! Dress yourself as the Big Blue Bug with pumpkin decorations and fake cobwebs. Choose something like the Superman building or the Towers in Narragansett, but make them as crooked and haunted as a Gothic castle in a Vincent Price movie. Put a local spin on an old horror movie favorite by turning the Creature from the Black Lagoon into the Creature from Narragansett Bay. Dress up as the traditional movie monster, but cover yourself in some of the litter we’ve all seen disgracing our local beaches, and top it off with a Save the Bay sticker.

Head for the historical because Li’l Rhody has lots of spookiness in its history. Fashion yourself a 19th century outfit and go as Mercy Brown. She was suspected of being a vampire after her death because of misunderstandings about tuberculosis (her grave is in the Baptist Church of Exeter). Take a traditional chicken outfit and throw on some old Rhode Island Reds clothing and go as the old minor league hockey team mascot. Or, if you can dress yourself up as a sailing ship, add some fake flames and go as the burning of the Gaspee or the Palatine Light.

There’s always more modern ways of making a statement on Halloween. If you’ve got some old Providence Journals laying around, fashion a costume from them and go as a the ghost of its former greatness pre-buyouts. If you’re a zombie fan, consider going as a zombified version of our own HP Lovecraft, recently risen from the dead. And as always, one of the old man’s eldritch abominations is always a great way to rep your state; he was Providence, after all.

So you’ve chosen your costume, what can you do this spooky season to celebrate Halloween the Rhode Island way? Consider (respectfully) visiting the graves of notable spooky figures like accused vampire Mercy Brown or monster man HP Lovecraft. If you’re into haunted places, Lil Rhody has a bunch (see motifri.com/wicked-haunted). A lot of the old buildings on the Brown and RISD campuses date back to colonial times, so hopefully they’ll offer you the chance to be haunted by something other than snobby college students. The Belcourt Castle over in Newport is said to be one of the most haunted locations in the state. Seaview Terrace, in the same time town, was featured on Ghost Hunters, as was Providence City Hall. Or you could always take a drive by the house in Harrisville that the movie The Conjuring was based on. Just keep in mind that it’s private property — don’t trespass and take care not to spook the owners.

There’s plenty more around; check our center spread for more in depth coverage!