The kitchen calendar turned to October 1952 and I allowed myself to think of Halloween. This was an annual monumental decision - What would I be this year? And then I saw it - a full face rubber mask of Frankenstein in the window of W.T. Grants. It was $3.00 - yikes a fortune in kid money but I talked my grandfather into a loan and my transformation was in the works. My grandmother was a great seamstress and turned and old black rayon piece of cloth into a giants jacket that fit perfectly over an old cardboard box which gave me monsters shoulders. My pop gave me an old pair of black pants and he nailed a couple of two by fours to the soles of an old pair of work shoes. I clomped around the house. Boris Karloff would be proud. And then the wait. The days ticked off. Now in south Millville just to be sure we got to everyone Treat or Treating was more than one day. We went out in a gang about two nights before the big one and each night up until the the Eve of Halloween. We also appear at the Bacon School PTA Halloween party and marched around and ate those dry cookies in the orange and black boxes with a chaser of cider. We filled a pillow case each night and didnt worry about straight pins in our Baby Ruth bars. And of course we tossed toliet paper over trees and would have turned over an outhouse if we could find one - but they had gone when we put in city water. And no we didnt burn a cop car or destroy anything we just had fun. And always hoped we meet the Jersey Devil in the second street hollow - just once.
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 23:52:13 +0000