With last night being Halloween, I wanted to tell of some of the
Halloween pranks from the old days. I remember Sy Kadry being in his
outdoor toilet when it was tipped over on the door. He was yelling for
help through the toilet hole! Bikes mysteriously were hoisted to the top
of the flag pole. Windows got soaped with soap bars if no one was home
to give treats. Windows weren’t too bad to clean but someone soaped our
screen door and it was nearly impossible to get out. My grandpa told
about a neighbor who was bragging that his dog was so mean he didn’t
have to worry about pranksters. Grandpa and some buddies filled the guys
car with straw, right in front of his house, and then put the ‘mean’ dog
inside the car too! This would have been back in the 30s or so.
Pranksters used to put wood wheeled farm wagons on top of the school or
garages and one story of such an event, was when several kids pushed a
set of wagon wheels on a single axle down the stairs to the basement of
the old Overly school and overdid it. The wheels knocked both of the
double doors completely of the frame. I remember some eggs ending up on
one of the teachers trailer homes next to the school. As I said at the
time, “I didn’t have anything to do with it !” I slightly remember
something about a dead skunk ending up under the same teacher’s porch.
Those must have been really rotten kids back then! The skunk smell was
hard to get rid of–especially from my school jacket! I remember when Ed
Conroy had way to many tomatoes and left hundreds in a pile near the
alley behind his house. That’s not a real good place to leave tomatoes
the night before Halloween. One prank I only heard of and never
did—truthfully—was to put soupy wet cow manure in a gunny sack on
someones step and light it on fire just as you knocked on the door. The
guy would attempt to kick it off the step or stomp it out. Either way,
same result! Happy Halloween! Thanks Gary!

Dick