Halloween 2009

It’s raining here, which no doubt is putting a wet blanket on the Haunted House the Rotary Club is running as a fund raiser – as well as to have fun. I went over last night – I mean, how can you not go to a Haunted House that’s set up in a funeral parlor? The good folks of the area cooperated, and Pete (the undertaker) had no ‘clients’ for the two nights it’s running.
Halloween’s a quiet night in my personal corner of the world. I don’t get any trick or treaters, too far from the road, no close neighbors. In the village, two streets get hoards, mostly Kinderhook Street, where they do everything but bring in busses. There was an article in the paper this week with people living on the street saying they get 300 to 400 kids, or more. Payn Ave. gets a lot, too. That’s a lot of candy to buy. The people interviewed said they enjoy it, enjoy seeing the kid’s costumes, but that’s still a lot of candy to buy.
The fire department has a costume parade and a small party, and the nursery school parades their kids on Main Street. The merchants had a little Halloween day, with a scavenger hunt, and had candy for kids in their stores.
We don’t get a lot of mischief, either. Years ago, the fire department had ‘fire watch’ because there would be a lot of little nuisance trash and leaf fires, but there’s not much of that any more. There will be some smashed pumpkins and no doubt some soaped windows, but not a lot of that either.
I like that people decorate for Halloween. There’s everything from the traditional one or two pumpkins to lights, ‘gravestones’, monsters, spider webs, ghosts and witches and even one or two ‘bodies’ hanging in trees. Fun.
I can’t remember one single Halloween costume I ever wore, although I am sure that there had to be more than one cowboy one. We lived in the country, so my folks would take us into Kinderhook to trick or treat, hitting a few of the friends and relatives on the way. We’d go up and down the main streets and get a pretty good haul of candy, with a few cookies and apples as well. There used to be a bonfire at the school for the older kids, my sister got to go to that but by the time I was old enough they stopped having it.
One year two of my friends, twins, came with us, and I remember they dressed as clowns; one house we went to the screen door had no screen in it and the woman was apologizing and one of the twins said ‘oh, that’s all right, we’re clowns, we’ll just climb in’ – and did.
The only costume I remember of my daughter’s was when she was probably 2, and I put together a ‘little old lady’ with a skirt, top and hat from somewhere – and probably the only reason I remember that is because I have photos. Oh, well.
When I lived in New Hartford with my aunt and uncle, they did Halloween proud, Uncle John used to say it was his favorite holiday. One year I took my cousin Mark out to trick or treat, and as we were walking back up the hill towards their house, kids coming down were saying ‘go up to that house, they’re bobbing for apples!’ and Mark said ‘Oh, No!”. Oh, yes, it was our house, and the kids were lined up out the door to bob for apples. Probably wouldn’t get many takers these days.
Then there was the year that Aunt Dot and I went ‘trick or drinking’ with shot glasses instead of goodie bags, but that’s a whole ‘nother Halloween story. . . . .
Anyway, hope there were no bad ghosts and ghouls at your house and that Halloween was fun for you. Everybody should dress up and be somebody else every now and then.