Halloween brings back memories of old-fashioned pranks

Missy Hermes

Published Saturday, October 11, 2008

For the past month, my youngest son has gone back and forth between various ideas for a Halloween costume. I’m old-school, I guess, and generally want to create a homemade costume.

Only rarely do I give in on this — I can sew, but Thomas the Tank Engine and Spiderman were well out of my talent range in years past.

I have always enjoyed the Halloween traditions and feel badly that they have taken on such sinister connotations.

So, I was happy to find the following column taken from the Oct. 30, 1916, Fergus Falls Daily Journal.

“Next to Fourth of July and Christmas, there is no time in the year which offers young folks opportunity for better times than Halloween.

Of late years it is the fashion among grown ups to decry the age-old custom of young folks playing pranks and cutting up capers on Halloween.

“There is a limit of course to everything. When it comes to waking up in the morning and finding the buggy astride the barn roof, an outhouse overturned and mischief created, generally we are apt to get rather hot under the collar and mete out stern punishment to the offenders.

“One of the hardest things to remember as we grow old is that we were once young ourselves.

“I am not going to plead in advance for the young folks who will get into the usual and inevitable amount of Halloween trouble this coming Halloween, but I am going to suggest that for all, young and old, nothing would be better than to get together at a good, old-fashioned Halloween party.

“What could be merrier than to play the old-time games in the dim candlelight, pretending to be afraid of spooks and all that sort of thing; bobbing for apples in a tubful of water, trying to snatch a bite as the apple swings on the string, and all the rest of that good-natured, innocent, jolly sort of fun that used to to be associated with Halloween and its parties?

“We must not get old beyond our years. Let us all keep young as long as we can. After all, that’s the only excuse there is for Halloween.

“It offers an opportunity to throw the years off our shoulders and be just boys and girls again, though our hair is white, our years many and our burdens heavy. Here’s for a jolly, good natured, old-fashioned Halloween.”

The Otter Tail County Historical Museum has several ways for you to get into “the spirit” of Halloween.

Not for the faint of heart, (ages 12 and up recommended) we offer the Haunted Museum program — eerie and gruesome true tales of the past, including the Pig Farm Murder.

A movie and snack will be available for youngsters who don’t wish to accompany their parents to Halloween Past.

Then we invite families to join us for an old-fashioned Halloween carnival from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 31, at the Otter Tail County Museum. See you there.

Missy Hermes is the Education Coordinator for the Otter Tail County Historical Society