In 1969 I was 21 years old and I hadn’t been trick or treating for probably 10 years. (I usually stayed home and handed out the candy and enjoyed seeing all the kids.) I happened to be living with my parents and working in Macksville that year.
A customer of mine came to the salon early in October and was talking about Halloween and she asked me if I was going to trick or treat. I told her I was too old and too tall and she said she had high school boys that were over six feet tall the year before who were trick or treating at her house.
She eventually dared me to trick or treat that year and I said if I decided to trick or treat she wouldn’t know it was me when I stopped at her house. She bet me a dollar that she would know me and call me by name if I came to her door, so the Halloween Dare was on.
When it was finally dark Halloween night I dressed up but didn’t have a mask. I did some extensive makeup and I met my friend Deanna at her house and we went trick or treating. About an hour after dark there were lots of kids, including the football boys on the streets. When we were sure that most of them had been to my customer’s house we decided to stop and see if I could fool her.
We rang the doorbell and proudly stood on the porch and when she opened the door we held out our paper sacks and I said, “Trick or Treat”. She placed a couple of pieces of candy in each bag and complimented us on our costumes. I thanked her for the candy and she shut the door.
I could hardly contain my giggles until we were back on the street and then I burst into peals of laughter. I had fooled her and could hardly wait until she came into the shop so I could collect my dollar. She’d told me she would call me by name when I arrived at her house so I knew she hadn’t recognized me.
After we left her house we didn’t trick or treating anymore but remained in our costumes. Deanna told me about an old man in town that hated kids and stayed up to keep them from soaping his windows.
The guy’s wife loved to have the kids stop by and get candy so we stood in the street and watched the kids for a while and never saw him. We thought maybe he wasn’t home so we hatched a plan to soap his windows. We decided to do the patio doors in the backyard. When the next bunch of kids came down the street we made our way into the backyard of his neighbor’s house.
When we heard the kids on the front porch yell “Trick or Treat” we ran out of the bushes, which had been hiding us. Just as we stepped onto the patio the porch light came on. He was standing in the door daring us to take another step.
I was glad to be in costume because he probably would have been on the phone complaining to my Dad, but he couldn’t tell who we were. I’m not sure if my dad would have been egging me on or been mad if we had succeeded in soaping the windows because the man was a prominent farmer and bought a lot of gas from Dad’s station.
Well, when he foiled our attempt at soaping the patio window it was like waving a red flag at a raging bull or throwing down the gauntlet. We were determined to get his windows if it took all night.
Deanna had always wanted to soap his windows, and so did all the kids in town, so the challenge was on. For the second attempt; Deanna went to the front door and rang the doorbell to trick or treat and I tried to get to the patio windows, but again he turned on the light to stop me.
We finally waited until his wife ran out of candy and turned off all the lights and when the house went completely dark we thought we could finally do the job and we made another attempt at the patio doors. But the light came on again and we knew he was probably going to stay up all night to keep us away from his windows.
After many attempts, we never managed to get one bit of soap on his windows. At 2 a.m. we finally tired of the challenge and went home to bed, and left him to watch over his windows. I’m not sure which was more satisfying; knowing the old man was probably up all night watching for us when we were home sleeping in our beds or the dollar I received from the Halloween Dare. To contact Sandy: [email protected]
