oh boy! Halloween!

Well, I have to admit.....this was always my favorite time of year in highschool. We'd have great, blow-out parties that usually ended with a trip to a haunted house or cemetery. This is what country kids do, deprived of big city fun. Two such parties stand out in my mind.

One year some friends and I constructed an elaborate haunted "village" and woods on my grandpa's farm for a party. My parents were out of town, so our house was used as the warming center. I had created some pretty nasty red goop for application to faces from which skin was to be deteriorating and falling off. A few of the guys stayed over that night and we started throwing it at each other and it landed on my parents new blue carpet. Did I mention it was red? I cleaned it as best I could, but then got the bright idea to add blue food coloring to override the red food coloring in the goo. This, of course, did not work and was pretty obvious to my folks upon their return. Add this to the broken lamp and scratches on the truck and I believe I got 4 weeks for this episode.

A few years later, another big party led about 20 of us to an isolated, abandoned cemetery in the country several miles away from home. The cemetery had one massive tree in it and sloped uphill pretty dramatically toward the rear of the cemetery. There was a single lane that you could drive on around the perimeter of the burial ground, leading from the road. Of course, I made up a fantastic tale of a mysterious fire in the church on the property that claimed the lives of parishioners, buried, right here.........below your FEET! As I was going into further detail of the poor Methodists ghosts who wander the cemetery, we heard a loud clank and a friend said..."that farmer's got a gun!"

We all scattered, hiding behind tombstones. Then we saw his headlights go on and we started running to the back of the cemetery. We came in four cars-only one car was parked in the back; it was an old clunker we called "Daisy". Everyone piled in and on the car.......it could not move. I think I lost my brother that night, if I recall correctly. And there was no gun-someone made that up too.

Life is short, get out and be a kid again tomorrow. Happy Halloween!