Halloween

Originally Written Between 2013-2015

 

It’s a whole different holiday now, isn’t it?  Back in the “good ‘ol days” (forty or fifty years ago), Halloween was really only celebrated on October 31^st.  Maybe a week before Halloween, our teacher would have us draw scary or funny faces on our paper jack o’lanterns and they would be hung on the hallways of our schools.   And, on Halloween itself, we decorated a large grocery bag or grabbed a pillowcase and we were off and running throughout our neighborhood getting as many treats as we could.

 

Since I was a “goodie two shoes,” however, I never participated in the trickery on that spooky scary night – such as knocking over outhouses or soaping windows, among other devious deeds.  

 

Times certainly have changed from oh, those-many-years ago.  First of all, my parent’s did not accompany us on our trick-or-treating route.  We were not afraid to enter a stranger’s home.  Our candy supply consisted of apples or oranges, popcorn balls, caramel pieces, candy corn, and maybe, if we were lucky….. a large tootsie roll (the kind that cost 5 cents).   Our costumes were always homemade.  (No on-line shopping for the popular costume of the day.)  We used real candles in our pumpkins and we couldn’t see where we were going since the little holes in our masks were too tiny to actually see through.  I don’t remember going to a haunted house, or a pumpkin ranch, or a corn maze.  I also don’t remember stores displaying Halloween decorations for sale as early as Labor Day.   

 

Writing about Halloween reminded me of a “Trick or Treat” story from when I was about eight years’ old.  My sister, Joanne, and I were in my grandparent’s neighborhood “making the rounds” as they say…. since our own neighborhood consisted of two houses – ours and the Amundson’s home.

 

Anyway, we were getting quite a haul of candy when we came to Mr. Pelowsky’s home.  He was a very old man who, in an eight-year-old’s mind, was very scary – especially on a Halloween evening.  We knocked on the door and when he answered, we said, “Trick or Treat!”  To which Mr. Pelowsky replied, “Okay, show me a trick.”  Well, you can believe that this was the first time I ever heard that!  Joanne simply looked at me like I was supposed to know what to do.  I had just started taking piano lessons and noticed that he had a piano in his living room.  So, I said that my trick would be playing a song for him on the piano.  I played “Three Blind Mice.”  And, then quickly grabbed my sister and ran to the next house – completely forgetting to get our candy from Mr. Pelowsky.

 

Now, fast forward about 12 years.  Norm and I were dating.  It is Saturday, October 31, 1964.  We were invited to a Halloween party and we’ve been working on our costumes all day.  Mine was easy.  My mom had a huge assortment of skating costumes from all the years of producing her roller skating shows.  So, I picked my favorite – that of a Scottish Lassie.

 

Now, Norm was open to making a complete fool out of himself.  One of the costumes mom had was a pink ballerina tutu and blouse.  It fit him perfectly.  He wore white long winter underwear and although you can’t see it in this picture, we used pink satin ribbon and laced it around his shins.  A blond wig – again from my mom’s box of treasures – topped his head.  Of course, we colored in his eyebrows, added blue eye shadow and red lipstick.  And, he looked adorable.  He pirouetted for everyone all night long and was the hit of the party.  Too bad there wasn’t a prize for “best costume.”  I know he would have won.