NJM 1 2013
Prompt: Day 1 – Write about what makes your family unique.
I grew up in Salem Massachusetts, the Witch City. During the month of October, Haunted happenings, well, happen .
But before there was Haunted Happenings, we just had plain ol’ Halloween.
My dad should have been in show business. He loved to entertain people. Whether it was with stories, his cooking, or just being himself, he would entertain.
Before I was born, my parents were to go to a Halloween party. Because they weren’t going to be home, they decided to make a scarecrow, and leave a bowl of candy on its lap. They put a sign around its neck that said “Please only take one”. Mind you, this is when the world was a little bit nicer, back in the 1960s things could be trusted to be left outside. You couldn’t do something like that now. Not even here in B.F.E. Missouri.
The next year, my dad decided to put the scarecrow back out with its candy and sign, but he also had a plan. He wanted to see if the kids took only one piece, or grabbed by the handful. So he got out some old clothes, put them on, stuffed some straw in the sleeves and legs, put a paper bag over his head and sat in the chair next to the scarecrow. If the trick-or-treater only took on piece, he would stay still. If they grabbed more than one, he would stomp his feet and yell “The sign says take one!” literally scaring the piss out of the poor kids.
Dad thought it was hilarious, scaring kids like that, so over the years he kept adding to it. A coffin on the porch with him dressed as Dracula one year, The next he would be a witch stirring a cauldron.
Pretty soon, people started coming from all over the city to see dad. Dad thought it was awesome, this attention. He realized that it would be more fun if the kids had to walk through a “haunted house” to get their candy. He enlisted the help of family and friends, painting plywood black and putting it up on our long porch, having them dress up in costume to help scare the children. We turned it into our holiday. We had more fun, food and family over on Halloween than on Christmas.
This was all for free. The kids would get a bag of candy (a few lollipops, candy watches, smarties) at the end of the porch from the witch. If a kid was too scared to walk down the porch, it was my job (as a child myself) to try to coax the kid to come with me, saying “don’t be scared, the mummy is my daddy” or something like that. If the kid still refused, I would bring them the candy. If a kid started crying, because they were scared? Well, that just made my dads night! It meant he did a good job!
Word of our “haunted house” even got to the news stations in Boston, who all showed up one year. One of the reporters asked “how much do you charge to get in?” and when my dad said it was all free, they didn’t believe him.
When my parents retired, and started traveling, they stopped doing the haunted house. I was still at home at that time, and the look of disappointment on the childrens faces was something to behold. I heard a few stories from parents bringing their kids trick or treating. They would say how they remember when dad was just a scarecrow sitting in a chair when they were kids, how they looked forward to stopping by every year since.
To this day, I still dress up on Halloween to scare kids before they get their candy. And if I make one cry? I know my dad is telling me “good job!”
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I wish we had a house like yours in my neighborhood.
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