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Halloween

(No actual crimes are admitted in this post.)

Halloween, early 1970s
A person had parked a 1950s Chevy four-door (52?) by an abandoned shop in the village. A gang of youths and early teens 'allegedly' grabbed the car and rolled it to a new resting place on its side.
 I may have witnessed this act.
I will never admit to participating.

Witches and goblins
ghouls and ghosts.
Tipped over privy's
man, they were gross.
Straw bales on fire 
flames reaching the sky.
But I wasn't there
if they ask
I wasn't 
not I.

Halloween was out of control when I was a kid. An after-school practice of greed, then a sugar-fueled night of roadblocks shutting down the village, and soaped windows, cleaned the next day by cursing business owners.
 The RCMP did give us a couple of good runs but we were never caught, and it became apparent that they couldn't police their whole area effectively. In later years the volunteer firemen assisted the police and kept us on the run. (I believe they turned a blind eye to most infractions. As long as there was an unblocked passage out of town, and no bonfires on main street, they were happy.)

I grew out of shenanigans. I can't recall the exact date that the village grew out of them as well. I do know that after our bad bunch deserted the fun it gradually slowed to a trickle. The death knell in our village to both tricking and treating happened sometime in the 90s with the closing of the school. The village kids decided to trick or treat the bigger town where they go to school, with their friends. Trick or treating in the village is now pretty much just mothers taking their pre-schoolers to Grandma's, and Aunt Mary's, to show off the cute costumes.

While Halloween destruction has been non-existent for years in the village I will take a couple of passes in, just to make sure everything is OK at our village house.
The scaffold I have set up for the roofing job would have been too much temptation for my crew, back in the olden days. And you never know. The mischief-making may have just skipped a generation, and the grandchildren could be ready to act on their Destructo gene that has been lying dormant.
 I will drive in at 8, and at 10:30. If all is well, and I know it shall be, I will come home, try to find "War Of The Worlds" and listen until Dad tells me to "shut that damn radio off."
Without affection for our good memories, we would all be lost.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

 

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