My first memories of Halloween were when I was about 7 when I started to school. I never got to trick or treat before then. The masks back then were awful and were a heavy plastic that were held on by an elastic band around your head. Even in the cold weather they were hot.
Mom drove me all over town to the houses I could visit. The places we stopped were people that dad and mom were in card club with or worked with. So didn’t get to trick or treat more than 20 homes. But it was a big deal to me and I thought I had hit the jack pot with the little sack of candy I ended up with.
When I became a teenager mom thought I could go out on my own. So my group of friends and I hit almost every house in town, and sometimes we went to one more than once. Especially if they had something that we really liked so we would have more pieces of that candy. But my favorite thing was if the women had made cookies.
Yep, back in the 50’s and early 60’s they made home made cookies and they were the best treat of all. But we knew every one at the houses we went to trick or treating so no one worried about the cookies. The ladies in our little town of Mullinville were great cooks too.
Then when I was in high school our idea of fun on Halloween was soaping the windows of the businesses in town. Of course the seniors were paid by the business owners the next day to wash them so everyone had fun with that. Our other fun job on Halloween back then was moving all the lawn furniture from all over town to set up a house in the middle of Main Street.
I lived with the folks for awhile after I finished beauty school. Another change in the fun for Halloween happened then. A friend and I decided one year to go trick or treating and most of the people didn’t know we weren’t high school boys. That was the last time I trick or treated but we sure had fun with it.
Then when I got married and moved to Hutchinson I started to work in a big salon. I convinced the girls in the salon that we should dress up for Halloween. We all went to a costume shop here in town and rented some costumes. The first year my friend and partner in crime dressed up as little Dutch boy and girl. What a fun day that was.
Then when I was working in my salon here at the house I borrowed some overalls from a farmer friend and customer of mine and his straw hat. I wore a plaid shirt that I had with it. I used some black eye shadow to rub on my cheeks and chin to look like a beard shadow. I had some customers that didn’t know me when they came in the shop. That was the best part of the day.
When our first Cocker Spaniel Lady came into our lives it was time to find costumes for her. She could wear a size 3 in a child costume. She seemed to love to get dressed up and go to the nursing homes and visit people and stop and see some people at their homes. Our favorite costume was the one when she was a Holstein cow. She just strutted when she wore it and the udders hanging down didn’t bother her at all. Looked better on her than kids because the udders were in the right position instead of on the kids stomachs.
Lacy was not as thrilled with the costumes but she would wear one so she could go visiting the nursing homes. She was cute in a pilot’s bomber jacket and the skull cap they wore back then. The jacket had on the back 4 paw prints and it said 4 paw squadron.
Since the girls are both gone now Halloween is a quiet night here at the house. No fun with bad knees jumping up and down to give our treats and go down the steps to the back door. So we don’t turn on any yard lights and the kids don’t stop by our house.
So Halloween is just another day in this retired folk’s home now and I usually look at the photos of the girls in their Halloween outfits. Halloween through the years has come full circle from being too young to trick or treat to not being able to do the treats anymore. HOPE YOU ALL HAD A HAPPY HALLOWEEN! To contact Sandy: [email protected].
