Well, I didn’t think I would ever get it completed, but somehow, I did it. I started on my proton pack back in May 2007 and didn’t finish it until 3 days before Halloween. My apartment didn’t have a very good place to work on it besides the kitchen table, so I had to work on everything little by little. On top of that, my wife and I moved into our first house the day before Halloween, so I was rushing to get everything wrapped up before the move. All in all, I am very pleased with how the pack and uniform turned out.
On Halloween, I was on the news really early in the morning (had to be there by 6:30 AM) for a costume contest. They interviewed me on camera, so I got to represent the Ghostbusters on TV. I told them that I was part of the Greenville, NC chapter of the Ghostbusters and would be protecting the city from all the ghosts and ghouls that would be out that night. I played it like I was a serious paranormal investigator and not just some guy in a costume. Unfortunately, a guy dressed up a Al Roker won their costume contest, which I didn’t think was fair since the station is a NBC affiliate.
After that, I went to my office even though I had taken the day off to move into my new house. I really wanted to show off my uniform since I had been talking about it for months. A friend of mine took pictures of me in action while I was there.
I dressed up again for trick-or-treaters that night. I had my laptop set up on the front porch playing the Ghostbusters theme on a continuous loop. All the kids had no idea who or what I was and were probably a little freaked out. The parents, on the other, got a real kick out of the uniform and the accompanying music. I didn’t go downtown that night like I had hoped. I was wiped out after Ghostbusting and moving boxes all day.
It was a blast seeing everything come together for my uniform. I took lot of pride in strapping on the pack and wearing the uniform of a true Ghostbuster. It just felt incredibly awesome. None of it could have been possible without Norm’s plans, Vin’s fantastic patches, CW’s resin-cast replicas, the great reference pics on gbprops.com, AJ’s fine selection of goods in the store, and all the posters on these forums. I couldn’t have done it without all of you. All I can say now is, “bustin’ makes me feel good!”
