Celebrating Halloween

 

My pre-teenage years were spent in Middle Village, Queens, New York. That occurred in the1930s, the period of the infamous depression. Halloween only involved boys no older that 12 years. The term Trick or Treat would be a misnomer as far we were concerned. Since it was a serious depression,  there was no hand out of goodies by our small stores. In fact other than the boys of whom I was one, no one was involved in Halloween. Our involvement was as follows:

No damage or marking up anybody’s property. We never asked anybody for a treat, let alone

threatened a trick. But, we did have a good time. We would receive from our mothers a worn out heavy thick cotton stocking. We all had in our cellars, coal burning furnaces that required daily removal of ashes. A portion near the bottom of the stocking was filled with these ashes and the rest of the stocking tied into a knot. We would meet in the street after dinner and at first we would throw the stocking as high up as we could and watch as it come down onto the surface of the gutter,  causing a large amount of ash smoke on the gutter surface. The trick was to attempt to be the one who threw the stocking up to the highest height and end with the largest result on the gutter surface.  At some point the boys would then use the stockings to hit each other with with it. It smeared our clothing but no one ever got hurt. Rain ultimately washed the streets clean and the laundry washed our clothing.

      The current Halloween celebration that involves dozens if children going from store to store  with bags filled with goodies and houses surrounded with skeletons  and all sorts of other trimmings, I think goes too far and I suspect my friends and I had more enjoyment with our street fun.

     I must admit, my two small children did go from house to house on Halloween with the words Trick or Treat, but it was not  for candies. They  each had a small coin box with a note seeking a contribution to UNICEF. If I  had to decide which of the celebrations, the street stocking celebration, the trick or treat current celebration or that of my children seeking a contribution to UNICEF, I’d definitely  pick the  UNICEF collection.

Ben Haber