Opinion

Aunt Jemima and LeRoy at Halloween

Friday, October 24, 2014

A week from today, we will celebrate Halloween again. In the past I have written stories about my memories of this holiday. It has always been one of my favorite festive galas. When I was 10 years old, my best friend and I displayed costumes that, by today's standards, would not be politically correct!!

In that era, most of our costumes were homemade. We might go to the local "dime stores" for a few items, but for the most part, our mother's hand sewed our garb. There was no Wal-Mart in those days, with countless aisles filled with every imaginable Halloween item.

I am not sure who decided upon our outfits that year. Since my mother was teaching, I suspect my grandmother was likely involved in the planning for our attire, and for certain she would have worked with the material on her Singer sewing machine.

Regardless of the origin of the inspiration for our costumes that year, when they were finished we were quite a sight to see. My outfit was a complete replica of Aunt Jemima, just like the picture you could find on any of the products that carried her name.

I wasn't too keen on the idea of wearing a dress at first, but when they told me I could don blue jeans underneath, I acquiesced. My memory was that the main dress was black. The apron that covered most of the front was red and white checkered.

Around my neck was tied one of my grandmother's good white towels. Atop my head they tied another red and white-checkered headscarf that was just like the one in the picture on the pancake mix box.

The clothing was made to fit, and it was not uncomfortable, but the rest of my disguise was not so easy. I had to put on a light coat of face cream from my mother's makeup area, so that the black face paint could be easily applied and removed later.

Two additional adornments brought my Halloween display to a culmination. Grandmother insisted on these, and I went along grudgingly. The first was some bright red lipstick. This was really awful, but not nearly so bad as item number two. They put on some gold hoop earrings that snapped on my ears painfully. I didn't want to wear these, but they said it really made it look just right.

My lifelong friend was Randy Emery. His mother was in on the entire project and planning. His costume was called "LeRoy." He had the same black face as me, but instead of red lips, his were painted white.

His mother had saved one of his old Sunday suits, which looked to be at least one and one-half to two sizes too small. His arms and legs both revealed skin at the end of his sleeves and pant legs. The entire suit seemed as if he was poured into it. To complete his garb, he wore a black derby hat, and we both had white gloves to hide our hands.

In those days Halloween was far from a one-day event. A couple of nights before the actual date of Halloween, we always donned our attire for the UNICEF night. We took saved milk cartons from school, and went door-to-door in Nevada, asking for pennies for that charitable organization.

In those times, trick-or-treating lasted more than one day, and it was very kid friendly. After the UNICEF night, we looked forward to two more nights of trekking around town, to, as we called it, "hit as many houses as possible."

Like our costumes, most of the treats that neighbors deposited in our bags were homemade. The word spread quickly as to who gave the best treats. I remember this one lady that always gave us her own from scratch popcorn balls. They were really great.

There were even a few candied apples offered at some homes, but we usually ate those right away, since they didn't fare too well in our bags. Many of the women had rolled up a variety of candies in plastic that included fudge, caramels, divinity, and peanut brittle. We had never heard of a "sugar high" back then.

At Bryan Grade School, we had a big Halloween party and costume contest in the cafeteria on Halloween day. Randy and I took second place together. I don't remember who won, but we were quite satisfied with the results.

As if we hadn't already had enough sweets from our trick-or-treating already, the school party served by the PTA, offered more candy, iced cupcakes, and chocolate milk. I wonder if they thought we were about to go in orbit?

Those were wonderful days for kids of my era. We had the free roam of town all the time, and there were no fears for children as there are today. I often wonder what happened and when that changed.

There were a lot more of the mothers in Nevada who were what we called housewives back then. Neighborhoods were much safer because of their everyday presence I suspect.

Our annual Halloween pilgrimage up and down the streets of Nevada came to an abrupt halt when we graduated from grade school into junior high. That's when we began our annual visit to NHS's famous Antivan.

Today I think that kids at even the Middle School go to an Antivan party each year. I am sure they enjoy that, but I'll bet they would have even more fun if the old trick-or-treat system of my youth, was still active.

Yes, Aunt Jemima and LeRoy were big hits that Halloween. We received lots of teasing and quite a few compliments. Most importantly we were able to fill our bags with lots of treats. I wonder if I could still wear those earrings?