I'm on the left, my sister, Mary is on the right.
I was 4 years old and we were living in the small, rural
village of Luthersburg, Pennsylvania in 1951. Life was very different then.
Everybody knew everybody, and as much as gossip was a big entertainment, people
were kind to one another and were generous to their neighbors. They also liked
to celebrate everything. If a leaf fell from the tree, it was cause for
celebration. So, Halloween was a big deal and, naturally, the town had a
carnival for the kids.
Mom, who made all our clothes back then, also made our
costumes for the Halloween carnival. She made a clown costume for me with big
puffy balls down the front and poke-a-dot material with plenty of rickrack
trim. It wasn’t the kind of clown from “It”, but more like Bozo the clown with
a happy face. I was so excited about the costume and the carnival. I was pretty
enthusiastic about the prospects of candy treats, too.
I had a great time at the carnival. I don’t remember much
of what I did there, but suffice it to say, I was in kid heaven when we got
home. I wanted to hurry up and get inside so I could see what treats were in my
bag. In my enthusiasm to get out of the car, I forgot to wait for Pop to bring
it to a stop. Keep in mind, in those days there were no seatbelts or special
child seats to impede my exit from the car. I flung the door open and
immediately feel to the ground. Pop brought the car to a screeching halt and
ran back to me hollering, “Are you hurt?” He told me later he thought he had
run over me with the car. I was completely fine, just a little scuffed up from
the gravel in the driveway. Mom came running as Pop scooped me up and we all
ran inside the house to see if any damage was done. I was fine, but there was a
big lecture delivered by Pop about not leaping from a moving car. Of course,
most of this was lost on me, a kid who was just eager to get to her Halloween treats.
I’ll never forget that first Halloween memory, however, and the excitement I
felt about the quirky holiday.
The picture I added is the only one I have of my sister
and me when we lived in Pennsylvania. The next year we moved to North Carolina.
I wore the clown costume one more time to go trick-or-treating with my sister
and the neighborhood kids—no parental supervision and we made it out alive.
What do you remember about your first Halloween? Were you
allowed to eat all your treats as you wanted, or did your parents dole out the
treats to you in some reasonable manner? What was your first costume?
Sarah J. McNeal
Author
of Heartwarming Stories
Fantasy and Dreams
(sarahmcneal.blogspot.com)
