BOO!
Greetings, my children –
It is Halloween time, and your old Granny Creech finds herself in a most reflective mood. It is the time for memories – memories of pumpkins, lighted jack-o-lanterns, ghost stories, scarecrows, monsters, princesses and storybook characters, and things that go bump in the night, as well as parties, good times, cool fall air, and the happy sounds of “Trick or Treat!”
I had the girls over for Brew the other afternoon and the talk turned to Halloweens past, and the memories that the very mention of the word conjures up. We reflected on growing up in anticipation of the day, and how the stores and the weather helped usher in the season. Our school classrooms were cheerfully and scarily decorated with orange and black streamers, skeletons, goblins, witches, paper mâché jack-o-lanterns, pumpkins, black cats and monsters galore. Recollections flowed like the Witch’s Brew we all heartily consumed.
One of the girls, Vespera Howler, remembered the fun she used to have going into the local five and dime store to look at the large Halloween display it had. Gurley candles, masks, Ben Cooper costumes, and decorations by Luhrs, Rosbro, Beistle and other companies crowded the “For Sale” tables and delighted her young eyes. Scary records could be purchased to play on record players. All sorts of yummy candy treats were also on display for purchase to appease the characters that would be making the rounds on that spooky night. All of the other girls shared similar feelings brought on by the displays and the predominance of the colors orange and black.
Winifred Hawthorne remarked how different things are today in regards to timing. She said stores didn’t set out Halloween decorations until sometime in October, whereas today, mid-July seems to be the starting point for many. Classrooms were pretty much holiday-oriented, and when October rolled around, kids knew what would be coming. Often classrooms would be decorated with handmade crafts using plenty of orange and black construction paper as well as by commercially-produced decorations and live pumpkins. It was all wonderful as Fall was a magic time of the year.
The TV and radio helped set the mood with programs and specials all geared toward things scary and spooky. Variety shows on TV usually had Halloween skits to bring in the season, and radio stations played songs such as “The Monster Mash”, “The Thing”, “Haunted House”, “Dinner With Drac”, and “Werewolf” among others. My nephew, Crazy Gary, told me when he was growing up in the big city, one particular radio station would feature a two-hour “Monster Marathon” on Halloween night that included ghost stories and creepy tales accompanied by eerie music. After the kiddies went out and tormented the neighborhood in search of all kinds of treats, they could go home and get scared to death listening to stories by Edgar Allan Poe, Guy de Maupassant, Alfred Hitchcock and others.
Hester Grimple said her most vivid memories were of the sounds and smells of Halloween night. She said that to this day, it only takes the smell of the burning of the carved pumpkin caused by the lighted candle inside to overwhelm her with a great sense of nostalgia. She also remembered the sound of children’s excited voices as they crunched their way from yard to yard over unraked leaves wearing store-bought costumes or handmade ones to fend off the cool, fall air.
Esmeree Grimshaw remembered that Halloween used to be fun back in a simpler time. She said that her Methodist church even had Halloween parties for the church kids and they were a hoot. She remembered the special room where a spooky person would blindfold you and take you into a room where body parts had been saved from the victim of a gruesome car accident. You got to feel a bone, two of his eyes, and a bunch of his veins. You also got to touch his brain that was sitting on a dish, feel some of his organs and put your hand in a bowl of his blood. At the end, you were given a towel to dry your hands off and were escorted out of the horrible room…if you survived! Ha ha! Halloween was a time where what you didn’t see was scarier than what you did see. It was all pretend and in good fun.
“That was before things took a turn for the worse and Halloween became something totally different,” said Elspeth Darkmoor. “That was when The Exorcist hit movie theaters and caused quite a stir. Suddenly the Devil and all things occult became too vivid, too real, and Halloween was caught in the crosshairs between those that saw it as harmless fun and those that saw it as too close to all things Satanic and evil,” she said. “Honestly, the Halloween marketers didn’t help, either. Costumes became too horrible and gory, too demonic, so they kind of shot themselves in the foot. You can thank Hollywood for that, too.”
“Yes, and sadly that was about the time we heard stories about people putting razor blades in apples and kids’ candy at Halloween time,“ Esmeree added. “That only gave the naysayers proof of how wicked and bad Halloween was. Society changed. We still see the repercussions of all that today. “Trunk or Treat” has now replaced going door to door and kids that do go trick or treating are always accompanied by their parents. Things aren’t safe. And it took us forever to convince our neighbors that we weren’t real witches…just six crazy old women who loved Halloween as we remembered it and dressed up in celebration.”
We all sighed and things got quiet for a moment as we each journeyed back in time in our minds, wishing things could be as they were. I broke the silence by saying that it was definitely up to us to make this Halloween a memorable one for our neighborhood kids. It was up to us to keep the old traditions going. I poured the last of my Brew (spicy peach tea, actually) into everyone’s cup and we toasted in the season, vowing to do all we could to ensure that this year would be a safe and fun Halloween to remember.
I later rummaged through my Halloween files and came up with some neat ads and photos from times past to share with you. Hopefully these will trigger some forgotten memories or help you to relive some ever-present ones. Enjoy!
And…Happy Halloween!