Halloween!

Halloween was a really scary time when we were youngsters.

We remember trick or treating on Halloween night in the dark. It seems like it got much darker back then than it gets these days. Houses were farther apart in the country and we walked very far to get a bag full of candy. Sometimes were given candy, nickels or dimes, cookies or pieces of cake, apples or pears, and even magazines when the folks were out of everything else.

We started trick or treating about a week before Halloween and went with our friends, usually not accompanied by parents. Folks would actually invite us into their home and try to guess who we were underneath our masks. Sometimes we wore only a " false face" as a costume and sometimes we wore old clothing and dressed as a hobo. We would wear old sheets and dress as a ghost, but NEVER a purchased costume. Weeks before Halloween we would gather ears of corn and shell them into a bucket in order to have corn to throw on Halloween night. When we felt really mischievous, we would upset an outhouse with some poor, unsuspecting person inside it.

There were occasions when folks would throw a bucket of cold water on us to keep us from throwing corn or soaping windows. The only decorations we had in our homes were jack-o-lanterns and maybe a shock of corn.

Halloween parades were an important part of Halloween and occasionally we would wear a costume and participate. We were mischievous, but not vandals. And we had lots of fun!