Halloween Long Ago

To the Editor:

As Halloween approaches, my mind takes me back to my high school years in Newtown, 1966 to 1970. The town was so much different then, the population was low, traffic was much less, the nights were quiet, and just about everybody knew one another. There were four police officers and two police cars. Crime and auto accidents were rare, although you had the occasional person who ran into the flagpole in the fog!

Halloween from abut 1968 to 1971, the high school students had a tradition that evolved, where several hundred “kids” would gather in the Wheeler Shopping Center about 8:30 pm and start a shaving crème and egg battle with one another. We would toss eggs at each other and try to mash shaving crème into one another’s hair. To some it probably sounds boorish, but it was fun to us. We laughed, and enjoyed the merriment. Officers Fred Kasberian and Augustine Fernandez would come into the group and warn us not to destroy anything nor hit the stores with eggs. One year I remember Fred and Augie getting shaving crème on their hats, and their windshield covered with shaving crème. They took off and let the kids to their own devices. Mr Cashman who owned the drug store in the center, came out to warn us not to hit his windows with eggs. He no sooner would step inside and the windows got a few stray splats.

No one ever got hurt, it was all in good fun. Any mess was washed down by the fire company after we dispersed for the night. The next morning on the way to school we would see all the trees on Main Street, Elm Drive, Sugar Street, Churchill Road, and Queen Street covered with rolls of toilet paper. Another sign of a “great” Halloween! On one occasion, some culprits put several old tires around the weathervane on top of the high school cupola! I don’t think anyone ever found out who did it!

The times were different and the town was a smaller close knit community. I believe many today would find this behavior abhorrent, but I can’t help but sit back and smile and enjoy my Halloween memories of growing up in this great “little” town of Newtown!

Sincerely,

Dennis G. Laczkoskie

Sunbury, Pennsylvania October 22, 2009