Frost covered the country road, as my
little brothers and I walked the mile to our one-room country school. We made the walk every day during the school
year, no matter if it was ten below zero, raining hard, or just a pleasant cool
day like this one in late October. It
was a special day. It was
Halloween. Halloween meant a party at
school that afternoon, starting around 2:00 p.m. and going on until the end of
the school day. The mothers helped the
teacher with the party, and it was always fun—if a bit scary for the younger
students.
It was hard for me to concentrate on my
studies that day, because all I could think about was the party to come, and
what fun activities the teacher had planned. The first mothers began arriving
at 1:30. One of them carried a big wash tub, the kind we used for taking a bath
on Saturday night in front of the kitchen woodstove. I knew what the tub was for. Every year we bobbed for apples. This meant the tub was filled with water and
a bunch of shiny red apples were dumped in to float on the top. To get an apple, you had to stick your open
month on one of the floating apples and chase it to the bottom of the tub,
immersing your entire head in the water.
Sort of fun if you didn’t mind getting a wet head.
When two o’clock finally rolled around,
the party officially started. My fellow
students and I stayed out of the way as the various party activities were set
up. Then it all began. The apple bobbing, attempting to retrieve an
apple that hung on a long string—almost impossible to do as the apples would
swing wildly. Blindfolded, we would take turns as the teacher explained feeling
grapes in a bowl of water (ghosts’ eyeballs), smelling vinegar (a witch’s brew)
and feeling cooked noodles in a bowl (a witch’s brain).
After the “fun” activities, we all enjoyed
Kool-Aid and cookies and shared with each other how much fun or scared we had
been. There was no “Trick or Treat” in
the evening. Only tricks that some of
the young men in the community took part in—such as tipping over outhouses and harnessing
a neighbor’s cows with horse harnesses.
Walking home that afternoon, I thought
about when we would have our next party at school, and which cookies I liked
best. They were wonderful, fun breaks
from reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic.
THE OLD TIMER SAYS: The Halloween
party was a memorable break in the fall routine at the one-room country school.
WHERE
TO BUY MY BOOKS
Buy from your local bookstore, or buy online from the Wisconsin
Historical Society bookstore, https://shop.wisconsinhistory.org/books, bookshop.org, or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson
Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for
prices and ordering, or contact the librarian: barnard@wildroselibrary.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984.
www.wildroselibrary.org
If you live in the
western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby, visit
Dregne’s. and look at their great
selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They
will be happy to help you. If you live
in northcentral Wisconsin, stop at the Janke bookstore in Wausau (phone
715-845-9648). They also have a large
selection of my books.
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