The Halloween Party The Halloween Party
Halloween was always one of my favorite nights of the year. In our early childhood years we looked forward to finishing our dinner, so we could run out with our paper sacks to collect chocolates and sugar pops. But most of all, I liked Halloween because of the costumes. These costumes became more scary over the years; and of all the costumes I wore on Halloween night, the one I remember best was a pirate costume bought at the five and dime. It was a single piece costume that tied around the neck, and it's design simulated blue pants with ragged bottoms coupled with a red shirt and bandana. Best of all it sparkled.
On Halloween, the school became one big Halloween party, where we would wear our Halloween costumes to class. We would march home at lunch time to find our costumes, wrap it around our street clothes, and walk proudly back to school with our costumes on. On Halloween afternoon, the school became filled with vampires, ghosts, Cinderellas, and other strange beasts and characters. The teachers would line us up in a row and we'd march down to the auditorium with the rest of grades 1-6. Excitement filled the air as this would give us an opportunity to show off our new Halloween costumes, and at the same time, entertain the rest of the grade school with our singing skills. Once all the students took their seats in the bleachers, several teachers would yell for everyone to quiet down, and once we were silent...the Halloween program would begin as it always had...the first graders would line up in front of the other students and begin to sing:
"Ghosts and goblins and witches and such...
These are the things we hate so much..."
As we watched the first graders entertain us, it was now the second graders turn to show us how well they could sing. No one could remember what they were singing, we were all mesmerized by the big black cat in the back row. As the other children were singing, this oversized cat was moving its eyes back and forth and his tongue moved in unison with the music.
"Who is that?" I asked excitedly.
"I don't know," said one of my classmates. "Its the best costume that I've ever seen. What a lucky kid."
"Hey, Terry," someone said behind me. "I think that's your brother V.J."
Then I scanned the second grade class closer, and I couldn't see V.J. Maybe that boy was right. Maybe that was V.J. I remember going down to the basketball floor after all the programs were done, and asked the student wearing the big black cat costume if he was my brother, V.J. The cat never responded except to move his eyes back and forth. It wasn't until I got home and saw his costume laying on the stairs that I knew it was V.J. inside the costume - he just decided to ignore me at school.
Halloween didn't start until after it got dark outside, which in our household became official at 7 p.m. Out the door we'd go with paper sacks in hand. After we had filled our bags with goodies, we would come home and immediately dump the contents onto the living room floor. Chocolates go here...pops go over here...fruit here...the popcorn ball next to the chocolates, and so on. And every Halloween, mom would tell us the same thing, "check for razor blades." After counting our treasure, we would selectively choose something off the floor and refill the rest back into the bag. Sometimes we would even compare our "loot" with each other to see if someone got something really special.
Dad also enjoyed Halloween, but for him the best part of Trick or Treat was "trick". He liked practical jokes. He showed us at a very early age how to make a device that when applied to a window would make a sound like broken glass. This handy device was a spool that he carved ridges along its rim. By adding string and pencil, the spool would revolve around the pencil making a loud noise on the window. This little device became a family heritage for many years in the Smith family.
One of the best memories I have was the Halloween party at our house. We had invited Gaylen and JoDell Birkolz, little Whitey Schaeffer, and Wayne Frey. It was quite a party, with plenty of food. We played a lot of games including bobbing for apples. The only lighting in the room were candles which gave the house an eerie glow. The record player constantly played a record full of haunted house sounds. At some point, mom decided to tell us a ghost story. The story had similar themes as today's urban legend - a ghastly monster that preyed on children, who loved to eat them raw. The story began to take on life...the monster sneaked into unsuspecting homes...it moved about quietly...hey, what was that noise out in the kitchen...if you saw the monster it would...
"Arghhhhhhh," screamed this horrible beast that came racing out of the kitchen.
Whitey Schaeffer's chair fell over backward and without a word he ran screaming out of the house. The rest of us went screaming out of the house and into the front yard. I don't even remember the door opening - all I remember is flying out of the house as fast as my little feet could take me. The Birkholz were beside us, but Whitely wasn't anywhere in sight. We continued to cry for help when suddenly mom came out and said, "There is no monster. It was your father dressed up as the monster." Dad appeared on the porch with his mask in hand. "Its Ok...it was just me trying to scare you." The Birkholz and the Smith children made their way back into the house, but Whitey was nowhere to be found. We went to his house and convinced him to come back, and after a little persuasion he returned. The party began where it left off, but now we were playing with the rubber hand and mask that dad had worn to scare us. The "big scare" gave us something to talk about for the remainder of the evening.
Story by Terry Smith