I don’t have a Halloween picture of Tony and me. This photo is of the next generation, Trip and Stevie, with a pumpkin, at about the same age that we were in the 1930’s, when we went to the Fisher’s on Halloween.
Esther and Harry Fisher owned a chicken farm and an apple orchard. They were a very nice, elderly couple that lived up a hill on Meetinghouse Road about a quarter of a mile away from our house. (The Jenkins and then the Girards lived there afterward).
Even though Tony and I were quite young, (perhaps four and six), we were told we could go by ourselves on Halloween to the Fisher home. So…. we were going to walk alone to their house after dark on Halloween night.
On Halloween Day, Daddy carved faces in our pumpkins and put real candles inside. It was exciting to get dressed up in scary costumes. The best thing of all was that we were going to be allowed to go out after dark without our parents. Daddy lit our pumpkins. What a thrill to see the carved faces turn into glowing Jack-o-lanterns! We were kissed good-by and we were off. It was very dark.
This was a big adventure to walk on the road alone at night. We were a little afraid. Mummy and Daddy watched us from the lawn as we walked all the way on the unlit dirt road up the hill to the Fishers. They opened the door in answer to our knocking. Both of them raved about our costumes and our candle-lighted Jack-o-lanterns, told us that we were very brave to be out by ourselves on Halloween, hugged us and sent us on our way back home.
Across the road from the Fishers was the Gault farm. Louie and Abbie Gault were old, reclusive and not friendly. From time to time, I had seen Abbie haying with her work horse in their fields. I never saw Louie. We had been warned by older children that he only had one hand and he would ‘get us’ if we ever went near their house or barn. We really didn’t like walking by their barn, which was close to the road. This was especially spooky at night.
As we started home, I noticed that the huge, decrepit door on the Gault’s barn was open a crack. Getting up courage, I decided to cross the road and peek in. When I got to the scary door, it was so dark inside that I couldn’t see anything. I pulled hard and it opened a little more. I stared into pitch black darkness. Then, something moved. I could barely see a moving shadow and then a face loomed out of the darkness just inches from mine. IT WAS LOUIE!! He had been watching us.
I screamed at the top of my lungs and so did Tony. Terrified, we dropped our pumpkins in the road and ran home as fast as we could right straight into Mummy and Daddy’s arms. I never had seen Louie before and never saw him since. And, I never looked in the barn again!
I love to grow small pumpkins like the one in the picture. The ones I grow are called “Baby Bear.” I still have them sitting on the window sill from last year.