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Hallowe'en Party

The year was 1939. I was going to school and somehow life seemed rather boring to me. It was a beautiful October day and here I was sitting in study hall, wishing I were somewhere else. So my friend, Sylva and I got our heads together and decided to plan a Hallowe'en party. Since we both lived in the country, we didn't have a problem with decorations, as they were easy to get.

We made a list of things to do, and the more time we spent, the longer our list grew. Soon we had enlisted the help of another girl who lived in Edgar. She would not be able to attend our party, but she was eager to help plan.

After we had completed all our plans, we had to decide who to invite. We ended up with quite a few older guests, since there were not that many younger ones in the neighborhood. In all 15 people attended.

We started our party with a snake dance. In and out of the hay barn we went, through the orchard, around the apple trees, around cars, and around the different buildings on the farm. Not taking into account that some of our guests were older and had a hard time keeping up with us, we found out that we had to take time out and rest between activities.

Next we went into the house where we took our guests through the basement, -in the dark except for a candle or two, on a Trail of Horror, as we called it. This was the most fun of all. After stumbling down our narrow rickety stairs, they were met by ghosts making wailing and ghostly noises. They walked through a doorway with threads resembling spider webs dangling into their faces. While a reader was reading a spooky story, they were told to put their hands into a dish of cold cooked spaghetti, which was to resemble the intestines of a ghost. After walking across a bed spring in the dark, they emerged on the other end of the basement via an outside door, none the worse for wear.

After everyone had gone through the Trail of Horror, we had time for visiting and ruminating, while a delightful lunch was being prepared. A good time was had by all. Don't you think our mother (and dad) were pretty tolerant to put up with all of these shenanigans? Our mother always felt that if we were at home doing all these things, she at least knew where we were and could keep her eye on us.