Halloweens Of Yesteryear

Hi All,

When I went down to the village last night noticed a few places decorated up. Tom Ferrick's place (The McArdle House) has a huge spider web with an erie green light glowing around it. There may be more, but I was driving and have a tendency to steer where I am looking, which might have ended me up on Tom's front porch.

Noticed several other places also, but one of the things I didn't notice was smashed pumpkins all over the village like I have seen in the past. Back years ago, I remember I didn't like to drive down to the village on Halloween as down around the Methodist Church and in and around the buildings in the center of town, lurked youngsters with eggs and you would get peppered in good shape with them. Don't know if you have ever had your car peppered with eggs, but if you don't wash your car, rather soon, they dry on and come off rather hard.

I suspect our Fire Department can fill anyone in more on the Halloweens of the past, or Cabbage Night as they made many trips out to fires intentionally set in the middle of the road, or hay bales in the meadows. That type of damage was done by those with vehicles and certainly not the younger teenage youths.

One of the things that used to be done many years ago was that young men would go into a farmers barns and let all of the cattle out of their stanchions, thinking that was fun, or putting buggys up on top of a roof, which just goes to show you that back in the Old Days, things were really not nice or better - I do believe in recent years things are much better.

Many of the Halloween Pranks caused many people and stores a lot of work, especially cleaning up windows and spray painted areas, but over the years efforts have been made to divert everyone's attention to some other activity on Halloween.

I am not really sure how the custom of Halloween Pranks started, but in my opinion, it never taught anyone much for values.

Now, I am rarely down in the village in the evening, but when I have been, everything seems rather quiet and peaceful - The groups that used to gather don't seem to be there now and except for a rash of break-ins on the Goose Pond Road, I have heard nothing really bad going on, which is good and hopefully it continues, which means somebody definitely is doing something right.