Ghosts and Goblins and Long-Legged Beasties and Things That Go Bump in the Night!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!

I thought that I'd tell you a story about the last time I went Trick or Treating as a 13-year old.

I lived in a very small town in Western PA, where everyone knew everyone by name, what they did for a living, etc.  We walked to church in groups every Sunday morning.  All the neighbors helped one another.  That kind of town! Not many places like that today.

My cousin's lived down the road and every year I went out Trick or Treating with my one cousin, Donna.  Our town on Halloween night was awesome.  The police car and volunteers and their fire trucks were out making sure we were all safe as their were two taverns in our town.  Even the taverns gave out potato chips and pop to the trick or treaters if you dared to go in there.  The owners of the taverns lived in town and we all knew them.

The towns folk would invite the trick or treaters into their homes back then, it was OK to do this, we didn't have to worry about crazies or bad people, as we called them.  So when you were invited in you went in and they proceeded to try to guess who was under that mask or costume.  Donna and I had always been guessed because we always came together her with her straight blond hair, I in brown curly, easy guess Donna and Debbie, but if you could fool the people then they gave you two candy bars or whatever they were handing out.  We had never been that clever in our younger years to disguise ourselves so that we could not be figured out.

My cousin and I figured it was time to give up trick or treating as we were becoming teenagers and we would be much too grown up to continue with this childish tradition.

So, what would be our last trick or treating night we decided to enlist the help of her brother and friend.  They were only a year or two younger than us.  We came up with a plan to go together, all four of us, thus we already had an advantage because the folks would be looking for a twosome.  So now to come up with costumes, we figured if we borrowed the boys football uniforms, helmets and all, tucked our hair, which was always a giveaway, up into the helmet, but a stocking from our Mom's stash over our head and face  and then dressed the boys up as cheerleaders, stockings over their face, they really gave us a bad time about wearing their Mom's stocking, but when we told them that we would surely get 2 candy bars, they went along with it.   We knew we would surely fool everyone, since they guessed us individually.  So this was our plan!!

All four of us went out and each house we visited couldn't get us right, they kept guessing the cheerleaders as Donna and I and the football players as the boys, 2 candy bars, WooHoo, for each of us!!  That was 8 candy bars at one stop, we were filling our pillowcases pretty fast.

Until we got to just about the last house, an old lady, who sometimes gave us popcorn that she had popped, or apples, she lived alone.  So we knocked on the door and she invited us in, she spoke in broken English, as she was from the old country.  She looked us over pretty good, going behind us looking, looking, we were all getting nervous, what was she looking at, would she be the one to figure us out and thus end our streak of 2 bars or whatever they were giving out  per house????  Surely she couldn't guess us correctly, but she did!   We couldn't believe how this old lady got us right when everyone else was wrong.  So, we asked her, how she was able to figure us out, and are you ready for this....................................she said.............................
"Well, I do have a telephone!"  We knew that her daughter-in-law lived a few doors down, but who would think that she would call just to tell her who we were.  The old lady laughed and told us to have fun and yes, all four of us came out of her house with 2 popcorn balls each!

It was a great night and one that I'll always remember and that was 44 years ago tonight!!

Wishing you all a very HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!