W is for Western Avenue, which is the longest street in the city, stretching 23.5 miles from Evanston on the north to Blue Island on the south.
It is a street on which one can find virtually every type of business, from the familiar–fast-food joints, beauty parlors, bars, car lots, currency exchanges–to the quirky. Drive the street–or better yet walk it one of these fine and warm spring days–and you will get to know Chicago in ways that no other street can match.
And be sure to stop into the Beverly Costume Shop, at 11628 S. Western Ave. It is a wonderful, colorful and lively place, as exemplified by clerk Kathleen Murphy’s playfulness in Osgood’s picture.
The store has been a neighborhood joy since it opened in the late 1970s. It is one of, by rough calculation, about two dozen costume shops in the Chicago area, a surprising number given that most of us only think of them, or think to visit, around Halloween.
North Siders are partial to Fantasy Headquarters, a massive enterprise at 4065 N. Milwaukee Ave. run by ebullient George Garcia, who claims that his is the biggest costume store in the country. Anyone care to argue when presented with the statistics?
“It’s 22,000 square feet with 5,000 masks, 30,000 costumes and 50,000 wigs,” Garcia says.
Visiting costume stores in the off-season, so to speak, got us to wondering why there are not more opportunities for people to wear costumes. Sure, sales pick up at Easter (bunnies) and Christmas (Santas), but when was the last time you were invited to a costume party in July, or March?
One of the Fantasy Headquarters employees, in a philosophical mood a few years back, told Osgood and me that the reason people dress in costume at Halloween is that “they can be someone they aren’t. They don’t have to be embarrassed about their behavior. They can get away with a lot more.”
Seems too bad, then, that Halloween doesn’t come once a week.
