Happy Halloween Memories

Happy Halloween Memories

Doreen Flewell Klatt

Columnist

Celebrating Halloween for the candy, popcorn balls (my favourite), school parties, neighbourhood get-togethers, and community hall parties is exactly how many people around the country choose to share in the holiday. It is a beautiful tradition of community connection, with just enough mischief to keep everyone alert. Some people enjoy the “tricking” every bit as much as the “treating,” and in our neighborhood, they took both very seriously.

When I was a kid, our neighbours absolutely played tricks on one another. After the children’s parties and the grand rural tour for homemade goodies and other treats, it was the adults’ turn. Our neighbours were remarkably resourceful. Their preferred supplies included straw bales, paint, binder twine, tape, toilet paper, bar soap, etc.; you get the picture.

One year, on the morning after All Hallows’ Eve, Dad found his saddle horse sporting green paint spots in various places. This was especially impressive because the horse was already a pinto; golden palomino with white spots. Apparently, the neighbours decided he needed a third colour. The tricksters had an easy time of it. The horse was in the barn, and they simply took a scoop of oats from the small grain box built into the hundred-year-old barn. While the horse mowed down his midnight-snack, they concentrated on their artwork. He may not have understood modern art, but he was willing to pose for oats.

When we went to feed the Leghorn hens the next morning, they were strutting around smattered with green paint too. Their fluffy white feathers and bright red combs had been decorated quite beautifully, and they carried the look with the confidence of birds who believed green was the season’s colour. Luckily, it was children’s water-based, harmless paint.

The same neighbours actually stopped at our house afterward for a drink and some treats, which was either very friendly or a remarkably bold return to the scene of the crime. Other years and other neighbours turned off the power at the pole early in the evening, wrapped the truck in toilet paper, soaped any windows they could reach with the least effort and noise, stuffed my dad’s coveralls with straw and set it inside the grain truck, and wrote lipstick hearts and notes on windshields and windows while we slept. It was usually great fun. No one meant harm, and none was done. Naturally, when confronted, everyone denied having visited our place. They even blamed other neighbors but could hardly keep a straight face! Apparently, the green horse and decorated hens had done it themselves.

When my siblings and I became teenagers, we tried our hand at tricking the neighbors too. I was caught once and driven home by neighbours who were delighted to announce, “I found something that belongs to you!” They stopped for coffee with Mom and Dad and enjoyed a good laugh. The laugh was really on them, though, because one of my brothers was still at their place, carrying on with the tricking. They never found him. Clearly, our family believed in teamwork and leaving no neighbour “untricked”.

My mom also helped organize Halloween parties at our local district school, Vanesti. The school had closed in 1959 but remained in use for community events until 1972, proving that a school building may retire from lessons but can still report for party duty. The celebration was usually held the day before Halloween because school parties and Halloween night itself kept everyone so busy. At Vanesti, there were games afoot, plenty of happy noise, lunch, candy apples, and candy bags. In those days we had many neighbours, so lots of children attended. With that much sugar in one room, “noisy” was probably the polite word.

Looking back, Halloween was never only about candy, costumes, or discovering whether green paint suited a palomino. It was about knowing our neighbours well enough to tease them, welcome them in afterward, and laugh together over coffee. The tricks gave us stories, the treats gave us stomach aches, and the parties gave us a sense of belonging. That may be the sweetest Halloween tradition of although I still would not turn down a popcorn ball. Happy Halloween!