HALLOWED EVE?

Well here it is, almost Halloween 2020, one that will be completely different from any others thanks to the current pandemic. I don't know anything about Halloween in other countries but here in the U.S. it's been a big deal. I would like to share with you some of my past adventures which happened on the "Hallowed Eve". 

When I was very young I belonged to the Girl Scouts and in those days we didn't have to go around peddling candy. We did all sorts of interesting and constructive things and even had campouts. On one overnight campout outside of town, I remember sitting around the campfire listening to Rocky Reagan tell ghost stories. He was a real rancher and a master story teller. I think that was on a Halloween but even if it wasn't it would have been appropriate for that time. They were wonderful tales. Look him up. He wrote some interesting books about Texas and ranching.

The first Halloween experience I remember occurred when I was in junior high. A bunch of us got together to go "trick or treating" throughout our small town. Of course we were too old to be doing it but that didn't deter us. We collected a lot of goodies and at one house the owner gave us each an apple, which of course, now we wouldn't eat, but then it was fairly safe. So we trotted on down the street, each of us munching an apple and the first one through with his said, "I'm going to throw the core at the next car I see." Not too smart, but that's what he did and it hit the windshield. The car came to a screeching halt, backed up and the owner jumped out, whereupon we all froze in our tracks because it was Vail Ennis, our sheriff. He came marching up to us, yelling that if we didn't all go home where we belonged he'd put us in jail. We believed him and we ran to our friend's house nearby and waited there until we thought the coast was clear. You see, we were rather terrified of him because he was really tough. He was in office from 1945 to 1953 and killed eight people. He was written up in Time magazine and was known to use a sub-machine gun. Guess we were lucky.

The next Halloween I remember was when we lived in Corpus Christi and rather than have our five children traipse all over the neighborhood begging for candy, we decided to set up a scary scene for them and their friends. So, my husband, a great story teller dressed up in black with a cape, gathered them around in our back yard in the dark and started his ghost stories. I was to creep around the house and sneak up on them with a mask and witch costume carrying a lantern and moan loudly. Well as I crept around the house I fell over a boot scraper which was by the front sidewalk, cut my foot and fell to the ground in pain moaning loudly. He thought it was my act so he didn't come to help me. I did a very authentic job of moaning and the evening was a hit with the kids. 

On one Halloween my husband was out of town so I had to cope with answering the door by myself. As far as I was concerned eight o'clock was too late to come around trick or treating so when someone knocked on the door after that time, I begrudgingly answered. There stood three big teenage boys demanding candy. Well, I wasn't in the mood and told them to leave at which point they started to push their way in. It was then that I lost my temper and cursed at them in Spanish. They evidently decided not to press me further so fortunately they left. 

When we lived in New Orleans my husband liked to dress up in that same black outfit, spike his hair and greet the kids at the door. I would play creepy music on the little organ that we had in the living room. It was quite effective because after a while the kids would cross the street before they got to our house because word got out that we were crazy. 

So, as you might surmise from these little remembrances, Halloween is not my favorite holiday (if you wish to call it that) and except for the reason, I won't miss it at all this year.