My Most Memorable Halloween

One dark and ominous Halloween night back in 1968 was a memorable one for me. My little home town of Cowley (population less than 400) became the scary nightmare town for one night.... October 31st. Almost every teen that night got an arsenal of rotten and squishy tomatoes and headed up to main street for a citywide tomato fight. It usually involved climbing atop the roofs of the town businesses and running along launching tomatoes at the unsuspecting down below. When semi- trucks went by they usually got their windows splatted, and out of town kids knew they were in for trouble if they entered the city limits.

My cousin Ed Willis remembers it this way:

"I remember some Halloweens in the sixties so wild the local law enforcement gave up on Cowley and went home for the night. I remember the main drag in town being barricaded off by burning hay bales, and garbage cans on fire. It was a mild form of anarchy to be sure. The morning of November 1st was always a sight to see with the carnage on the main street area. There were volunteer tomatoes popping up in the church flower beds that next spring."

It just so happened that I was dating this cute out of town guy and he and his pals from Lovell came up to see what was going on. I happened to be with my buddies Cindi Peterson and I think Susan Nicholls at the time. We had our own arsenal, and although I can't remember from whose garden our ammo came, we were ready for the fight. Normally, I would have been sitting in my boyfriend's car with him but tonight he was the enemy. The guys had gotten got out of their cars and had found some ammo too. The war began and we started throwing rotten tomatoes at each other.

I was not near a barricade so one of my boyfriend's tomatoes happened to find it's target...my face. After only a couple of minutes I knew I was in trouble. I started to itch terribly and my face started to swell. I made it home in just a couple of minutes. Mom and Dad soon realized that I needed to get to the hospital ASAP. I was having an allergic reaction to the tomatoes or something on them and if I didn't get help soon, I would be in a world of trouble. After a few shots to keep my heart beating and an antihistamine and to calm down the hives that were starting to develop I was able to go home. My hives joined other hives until each one was about 6" across and I itched for days. The darn boyfriend didn't even know what had happened until the next day. I always say he tried to kill me that night, but then I went right ahead and married him. He has never hit me since.

Halloween Costumes

We have the same group of good friends for many years and we all liked to party. We have had a lot of dress up Halloween parties and these are some of the costumes from over the years. I have more pictures of the Stott's somewhere, but couldn't find them in time for this post. Marjie had one of the most clever costumes as she dressed up as the Energizer bunny. She carried a drum and had batteries taped to her wrists. If I find the pictures later I will post them. Her husband, Jim, had grown a beard and shaved only half of his face. Marjie had sewn him an outfit that was half a man's suit and half a dress so that when he turned one direction he looked like a man and when he turned other direction, he was dressed and looked like a woman. We have some pretty clever friends and we miss them a lot. Marjie's birthday is on Halloween too so Happy Birthday Marjie.

Joan/girlfriend of the rock star

Wayne/rock star aka Rod Stewart

Wayne/ a mama pig

The real Minnie Pearl

Joan as Minnie Pearl

Joan and Wayne Ostler/ witch and road kill

Notice the tire tracks across Wayne's chest and broken ears. There is blood there too but you can't see it.

Jody Schofield/Diva in the making

Dane and Jody Schofield/ The pope and pregnant nun

Dane Schofield/front of sumo wrestler

Dane Schofield/ back of sumo wrestler

Vaughn Clark/ Rolled bail of hay and Kathy Clark/Waiting for a roll in the hay

Oil Sheik/Lenny Clark

Spanish contessa and Vampire/Vonda and Larry Brewster

Karen and Tad Butt/ cheerleader and letterman

Veronica and Jimmy Jones/ flour and baker?

Doug and Cindy Bennion/Mr. and Mrs. Scarecrow

Halloween Tidbits

Jack o’ lanterns originated in Ireland on the Samhain holiday. People placed candles in hollowed-out turnips to keep away ghosts and evil spirits.

The ancient Celts began wearing costumes and masks on Halloween night because they thought that spirits and ghosts roamed the countryside that night. They wanted to avoid being recognized as human.

Halloween candy sales average about 2 billion dollars annually in the United States.

Bobbing for apples is believed to have come from the roman harvest festival that honors Pamona, the goddess of fruit trees.

Black cats were once believed to protect witch's powers.

Halloween is recognized as the 3rd biggest party day of the year. The largest are New Year's
and the Super Bowl.

In an early form of trick-or-treating, Celts costumed as spirits are believed to have gone from house to house engaging in silly acts in exchange for food and drink—a practice inspired perhaps by an earlier custom of leaving food and drink outdoors as offerings to supernatural beings.

Here is a site to see what some giant pumpkins look like after artistic carvers have their way.

Click on this link:
Sleep Hallow Pumpkins - Pumpkins

Halloween Decorations

Here we are, decorated for Halloween and waiting for the little ghouls to show up on October 31st. We add a little something each year. This blog won't show you everything we have, but this is a sampling of my attempt to scare off the things that go bump in the night on Halloween night.

These are the scary things.

My son-in-law Matt says you can never have too many skeletons. I have my share.

The mantel decor

This guy is looking out from my guest bedroom window.

My mummy

This is a ceramic mummy that Shon made for us when he was on his mission in Alaska.

Do you get the feeling that I like a good mummy? He is emerging from a sarcophagus.

For obvious reasons, and because he is so cute, it's my very favorite Halloween decoration.

A skeleton garland hangs from my fireplace mantel.

Wayne and I found this potions book at a store in Logan one day. It is one of my favorite decorations. When you open it you hear a witch cackle and she quips several different scary

quotations.

These are the cutsie decorations.

I won this at Dear Lizzie's boutique during a drawing for who was wearing the

most jewelry in the store at the time. I had on earrings, a necklace and

4 rings. I'm not usually a big jewelry wearer but I was glad I was wearing some on that day.

My ceramic haunted house

A happy ghoul

Remember when everyone was making decorative items out of nylon stockings? This witch was one of them. You can date some of the stuff by the way it looks....80's style here.

This is my cat face basket that could be used for a trick-or-treat bag

if someone wants to borrow it.

These are the decorations that I have made over the years.

This is a cat that I made from wood and a wooden egg. Some of the Grandkids

think the "kitty is too scary".

I found the tombstone at a bazaar and used my Dremel tool to carve in the RIP

I found a gourd that was shaped like a pumpkin, painted it and won the 1st prize for a pumpkin contest.

I drew a raven, cut it out of thick cardboard and painted it black and glittered it.

Frank

My bottle of witch's brew

I painted this tole painted jack-o-lantern.

I made a bunch of these wooden spiders and painted them.

This is a plaque I made with 2 boards hooked together with wire.

This is an old frame that I found at a garage sale. I painted it orange then painted the sentiment.

This was a vintage image found on the computer and decoupaged to a board. There is glitter on the edge of the pumpkin. A little glitter is a good thing and Martha Stewart didn't even have to tell me that. What fun I have decorating for the holidays. From here until about January 2 my house will not look like the norm. When I finally get things back to normal in January, it's kind of like getting a new makeover. I sometimes forget how to put my regular stuff back up.

The Corn maze

I hope this doesn't scare you like it did me. For family home evening I got free tickets from our "mortgage finance company". The mortgage finance company??.... to go to the corn maze?? Were they tickets from the bail out? YIKES!! At any rate, I didn't look a gift horse in the mouth. We also got free pumpkins, Crispy Creme doughnuts and cider.

Does my terror look real? I thought so. I've been known to act before.

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble

The arachnid den

She was spooky...just an old lady nodding her head and not saying a word.

Belle is not as good an actor as me...she has a slight smile.

Millie...the same thing.

The mad scientist is screaming because he is afraid of us.

Click to enlarge these two pictures and you will see what happens to you when the corn maze sucks you in. You become red eyed zombies.

This little piggy went to market... I mean to the corn maze.

Nick is a good big cousin and takes E on the train around the corn maze.

Isabelle and Millie got their turn too.

Matt and Millie are the first to shoot the corn cannon. Matt shows us how.

No, I couldn't get the cannon to work. More practice is needed.

Emerson loved being here, and for the first time in his life he actually kept a hood on his head. We have been trying for a year to get him to wear a hat but he just wouldn't keep it on until tonight and he actually semed to like it.

I almost didn't blog this picture because I look pretty haggard, but

E is always a good photo subject.

Amy and Emerson are just checking out the fun things to do.

Wayne and Wes were working tonight, so we just went without them. They can go to the corn maze vicariously through our blogs. We will go again next year with our free tickets unless the mortgage finance company is "no more" by then. Now that's REALLY a scary thought! AIEEEEEEE That's Halloweenese for screaming