Halloween.
Submitted to dVerse
October 26, 2020
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When I was a child I went to a one-room schoolhouse which was situated just across the road from our house. School and church activities were the fabric of social life in our rural part of middle Illinois. At the school Halloween party, the parents came in costume as well as the children. My mother loved Halloween, and was quite creative in choice of costume. In the year I was 8 or 9, mother decided that she and I would dress as a couple taking their rooster to market. I don't recall exactly how my father escaped this plan. Mother loved to dress as a man. She was pretty believable with her fedora pulled low, her fake moustache and her britches and shirt. I was a chubby child, and so I suppose I was believable in my babushka, house dress, stuffed ample bosom, long stockings and brogans, carrying a basket containing one of mother's roosters, hogtied and terrified. The logistics of arriving at the party without disclosing our identity puzzled Mom for a bit. "They'll know us", she said, because they won't hear a car before we arrive". At last she arrived at a solution. "We'll go through the garden, climb the fence (with the barbed wire on top) and sneak to the side of the schoolhouse. When the next people arrive, we'll go in with them and they'll think we're all together." So, through the garden we went, and mother spryly climbed the fence. I was not so lucky. I was not only a chubby child, I was a clumsy one, and in my clamber over the fence ripped my leg on the barbed wire. Undaunted, Mom tucked a hanky in my stocking to catch the blood and took off across the road, carrying my rooster-in-a-basket for me.
As I recall, our ruse was successful. Mom had a great time twirling her moustache and tipping her hat to the ladies, the hapless rooster survived, and we won first prize. To this day, the scar on my leg brings back memories of that long-ago Halloween.
Prairie Halloween
celebration in the schoolhouse
well earned prizewinners
Fun memory no doubt. Thanks for a charming haibun Bev
ReplyDeleteHappy you dropped by to read mine
Much💛love
What a glorious description, and your mum sounds like a fabulous, fun lad!
ReplyDeletethank you for sharing such a precious memory with us.what a gift you mum gave you that evening with such a memory.
ReplyDeleteI love your story. Your creativity inherited from you mom carries on.. Great job!
ReplyDeleteWhat a thrilling adventure despite being just by the house. It is so memorable Bev, especially having a most sporting Mom as a partner!
ReplyDeleteHank
Bev Bev this was fascinating touching and funny. I really enjoyed it. Happy Halloween to Bev!
ReplyDelete« hogtied and terrified » love the tale of that Halloween
ReplyDeleteMemoir City. Glad you asked us to visit, Beverly. Thanks
ReplyDeleteThis is adorable, like an episode from Little House on the Prairie. I feel a bit sorry for the rooster, though...
ReplyDeleteThank you for another wonderful Prairie memory, Bev. I didn’t know that schools held Halloween parties, with parents in costume too. Your mother sounds like she was great fun.
ReplyDeleteIn that place and time, the little schools and the churches were the only social life of those who lived in that sparsely populated area. There were wonderful last-day-of-school picnics when all parents attended and rousing softball games ensued!
DeleteWow, Beverly - your mum sounds like a lot of fun, with a devil-may-care attitude! Pleased you weren't too badly hurt, and that even the scar evokes a fond memory.
ReplyDeleteBev, this is a priceless remembrance and a masterful telling of that Halloween night. You took me there, and what a wild trip it was. Your Mother was an irrepressible delight, sounds like to me.
ReplyDeleteIf you go to the thread on FB, you will see my niece's story of another Halloween when my mother was Charlie Chaplin!
DeleteYou describe another world Beverly. It's fascinating how traditions grow and change.
ReplyDeleteA visit back to that area reveals still many vestiges of the old days. Modern ways have encroached, but some of the old ways cling!
DeleteI can't imagine anything like this. It sounds like a scene from a movie. Thanks for sharing your story and memory. Your mom sounds like she was quite a character--but your poor leg!
ReplyDeleteThis is a sweet story really... love how you managed to fool yourself in... but I guess that it was only in hindsight it was worth the scar.
ReplyDelete