HALLOWEEN AND STUFF

I don't remember Halloween being a big deal when I was young. I read in books that people made Jack-O-Lanterns and dressed-up for parties but I don't remember anyone ever doing that for school. I do remember some of the kids talking about going out and doing some pranks--mostly harmless. I don't remember anyone mentioning dressing up. I didn't hear about "trick or treat" until I was 11 or 12. Someone mentioned it and said, "Let's go trick or treating." No one was in a costume but there were five or six of us, so we decided to try it. We didn't have made-up faces or anything. We just went to the door, knocked and shouted, "Trick or Treat." I remember going to my Uncle Ben and Aunt Jenny's house. Aunt Jenny came to the door and laughed when she saw us. She wanted to know what kind of trick we were going to play if she didn't give us a treat. We told her we didn't know what kind of tricks to play but we'd like a treat, so, as I recall, she gave each of us an apple. I don't remember going anywhere else. It wasn't all that much fun. We preferred to go to someone's house and make candy so we did. That's the only time I went trick or treating. (I will be telling you more about Aunt Jenny and Uncle Ben at a later time. I had two favorite aunts. One was Aunt Jenny and the other was Aunt Ellen. I'll tell you more about Aunt Ellen, also.)

I always thought it would be cool to have a pumpkin and make a Jack-O-Lantern but I don't remember ever seeing pumpkins for sale anywhere. I probably didn't have the money for one, anyway. I don't remember ever seeing anyone grow pumpkins. They probably did, because people made pumpkin pies and I don't think canned pumpkin was an option then. My dad didn't grow pumpkins. He grew squash. Squash could be stored in the "pit" to eat during the winter. We had lots of squash. My mother made squash pie but she never put spices in it so it was not all that tasty. I really liked the whipped cream on top, though. I'm not sure what I'd have done with a Jack-O-Lantern if I had one, but it was fun to think about having one.

Now, don't let my boring Halloweens lull you into thinking that no one else in Blanding did things on Halloween. Generally, it was the older boys in town (who should have known better) who did the pranks and some of them were not necessarily nice pranks. It was the same thing every year. A group of boys would go out and do their thing, then they'd grow up and go away and another group would take over.

I told you about our outhouse. We weren't the only family in town to have an outhouse. When I was young, probably half the houses in town had outhouses. Yeh, I know you know what I'm about to tell you. Some of the boys would go out to see how many outhouses they could tip over without getting caught. Our three-holer was tipped over at least once because I saw it. I heard stories that occasionally someone would accidentally fall in the hole. I know the stories were true--it was a hazard of the prank. Pretty GROSS, huh? We just figured it was "instant justice." I often wondered if a person felt entirely clean ever again after having fallen in a toilet hole filled with "crap." Whenever an outhouse was tipped over it was always pushed from behind and it would fall on the front side where the door was. There were a couple of times when someone was actually inside the outhouse when it was pushed over and that person was unable to get out until someone else found the outhouse on the ground and gave aid to the entrapped person inside. You may ask how that could happen. It was like this: The guys who did the tipping were sneaky and quiet. They didn't want to make any noise for fear of getting caught. Apparently, on occasion, they were able to sneak up on someone inside--it just happened. I remember waking up the day after Halloween and seeing our outhouse on the ground. Now that's pretty bad. You can't "go" until the building is upright. Getting it back in the exact spot was tricky. Daddy needed help to get it upright so he would have needed a couple of people. We laugh about it now, but at the time, it was no laughing matter. Frankly, I have never approved of kids going out and creating havoc merely because it's Halloween. It's rude and often destructive.

After our outhouse was tipped over, my Dad decided he had to see to it that our outhouse would never, ever, be tipped over again, so the following summer he dug a new hole. The hole had to be at least six feet deep and it was probably four feet square. I don't remember whether or not he shored up the sides. I would think he'd have had to in order to insure that it would never cave in. Anyway, after the hole was dug, he made some concrete for the floor. I suppose he had to make a mold for the hole in the middle of the concrete. He somehow worried the concrete floor across the big hole and then built the seat, lid, walls and roof. There was a pipe(maybe five inches in diameter) that went up through the roof for ventilation. And then, he fixed that outhouse so it would never be tipped over. He dug a post hole about three feet deep on both the east and west side of the outhouse (the door faced north). He put the posts into the post holes and then poured concrete around the posts in the bottom of the holes. When the concrete was set, he filled the holes to the top with dirt and tamped it solidly. Next, he drilled two holes in both the east and west walls of the outhouse; he took heavy fence wire and wound it around the post and through the two holes (in a figure 8). He must have wound that wire around the post and through the holes at least six or eight times and then twisted the ends with pliers so it would be almost impossible to undo them. No one was going to try to undo the wires so they could tip over the outhouse because it would take too much time. The deal with tipping over an outhouse is getting in and out quickly. We never had any more problems. I thought he was pretty smart. He couldn't control all the boys in town but he could control whether or not our outhouse would be on its face on November 1st.

When I was a senior in High School, one of the boys in my class who had a pick-up truck got some friends to go with him and they found an old, mostly abandoned outhouse. They loaded up the outhouse on the back of the pick-up truck, took it over to the High School, carried it up the front steps and deposited that outhouse in front of the doors and left it there. I guess they thought they had really pulled off a great prank. It just so happened that the High School Principal lived across the street from the High School and he just happened to be outside his house while this was happening. Hey, Blanding was a small town and everyone knew everyone else's vehicle. Mr. Alexander recognized the pick-up truck. He didn't make a sound. He let those guys carry the toilet up the stairs and he let them leave. The next morning we all had to enter the school through another door. Mr. Alexander called an impromptu assembly as soon as the bell had rung. We all went to the Gym. Mr. Alexander called the driver of the pick-up truck to the front of the Gym and told him to go load up the outhouse from the front steps and take it back where he found it. He told him if he wanted help to move it he'd have to tell the names of his accomplices. Of course, the driver of the pick-up truck quickly "ratted out" his friends. We were all excused to go outside and watch while the outhouse was carried down the stairs, loaded on the pick-up truck and hauled back where they found it. I've always thought Mr. Alexander was extremely wise to handle it the way he did. He totally embarrassed the guys and gave the rest of us a good laugh. By the way, Mr. Alexander was one of my favorite teachers and I will be telling you more about him later.

Well, that's pretty much how I remember Halloween in Blanding. In the meantime, Halloween has turned into a major celebration for a lot of people. Personally, I did not much care for Halloween when my kids were small because I am not a clever, creative person. Halloween became more fun when Jackie was about eight or nine years old. She was extremely clever and creative. When she started thinking up and creating costumes, Halloween was kinda' fun. I remember one year Bret dressed up in one of my old muu muus, put pillows underneath and went to school as a "fat lady." As I recall, he won first prize in his class. Jackie, Patti and Shanna were all creative and clever. One year Jackie made herself a black cat costume that was adorable. She also made a matching black cat costume for Tal. She took Tal with her when she went trick or treating. In later years, Patti dressed up as a devil and Shanna dressed up as a Martian. They looked spectacular. I believe they all won prizes of some kind. There were many other costumes for all of the kids but I don't remember all of them. Before I move on to other things I should tell you that there were many Jack-O-Lanterns, INCREDIBLE JACK-O-LANTERNS. I loved them all. Jackie made a witch jack-o-lantern out of a BIG zucchini squash. She made a hat, skirt and everything. We always left a squash on the vine to grow big so Jackie could make a new witch every year. We saved the costume from year to year. It was so scary and cute.

Then, all my kids got married and left home. They and their husbands/wives were well equipped to handle the Halloween costume thing and I was left to my own devices as far as costumes were concerned--which was to do nothing but hand out Halloween candy to trick or treaters.

We lived in Big Water from July 1987 until May 26, 2006 and during that time we had a total of 10 trick or treaters. We were always prepared for more but the houses were so far apart in Big Water that it was too much work for the kids so their parents took them into Page, Arizona where the houses were closer together. They got a lot more treats for the time spent in Page than they'd have gotten in the whole town of Big Water.

Now, we are in Loa. Last year we had maybe a couple dozen kids come. It was fun. Oh, my gosh--did I say Halloween was fun? I must be getting old.

I love you all.

P.S. I will be adding another chapter within the next three or four days so be looking for it.