Doug Daugherty: Halloween In Brainerd In 1962

  • Thursday, October 31, 2024
  • Doug Daugherty
Doug Daugherty
Doug Daugherty

What will young boys do if you give them a mask, a greeting, and a reward of candy? In the early 1960s in Brainerd, we had fun. Halloween in those days was innocent. My earliest costume were home-made of the then famous, sad-faced clown Emmet Kelly’s character of “Weary Willie” based upon the hobos of the Great Depression. In those days, we didn’t create or buy costumes. With the help of a resourceful Mom, we made them.

Typically, two or three friends would hit the streets about dusk. We didn’t stay on our street; we wondered as far as our appetite and legs would carry us. Most homes were welcoming. Then, even homeowners who were out for the night would leave a bowl of candy on the porch under a welcoming light.

Sometime during this period, somebody, somewhere, spoiled things a bit. A rumor floated of razor blades and needles being put into oranges and apples. From then on fresh fruit was verboten.

The worst thing that ever happened in our night forays was an encounter with a group of older boys, local toughs, bullies if you will, who stole our grocery store, brown-paper bags full of candy treats as we were returning home. There was no justice, just sadness and resentment.

The license given to young boys with the greeting “Trick or Treat” seems in retrospect at the very least foolhardy and at worst dangerous. More than once, we stuffed straw into a hoodie and pants and would throw the dummy into the street before a passing car. (I will not for the fear of prosecution relate other tricks!)

For all the focus today on skulls, bones, and ghosts, that was not the tone, at least in my neighborhood of Wiley Avenue. Neighbors were happy to see the children. Parents were happy to release their children to the night, without supervision.

While turbulent years were ahead, in 1962 things were peaceful. The young, energetic John Kennedy had been elected in 1960. John Glenn was the first American to circle the Earth in Friendship 7. The number one song of that year? Pat Boone’s Speedy Gonzales. The Beverly Hillbillies was the number one TV show. The Music Man with Robert Preston was a top film. The Farmer’s Market was full of local produce on 11th Street. The Krystal Restaurants sold hamburgers for 15 cents. The University of Chattanooga was a small vibrant university, yet to become part of the UT system. People opened savings accounts at First Federal Savings and Loan. There was no internet, big-box stores, and Chattanooga had two newspapers.

Real scary stuff was not in the news but was on TV. Old movies produced by Universal Picture were psychic grist for the sensitive imagination. There was Bela Lugosi as Dracula; Boris Karloff as Frankenstein, and, Oh, the scariest to me, Lon Chaney as the Wolfman. Bela and Boris didn’t ring my bell, but Chaney’s transformation into the Wolfman floated the primal fear. I don’t know why, but the metamorphosis really caused me to hide my young eyes or turn my head away.

Halloween is a bit of an odd holiday. It is a secularized religious event, the origin of which was the Celtic festival of Samhain. Later, the Catholic Church reinvented the observance to accommodate their theology of the “faithful” dead. The day after Halloween is All Saints Day, and the next day is All Souls Day on the Catholic calendar.

But now, its decorations, costumes, and candy by the bucket.

Wandering free in the night was a young boy’s idea of fun in those days. It still is. This Old Soul remembers it with fondness with perhaps an eye for a fresh apple, orange, or an occasional Tootsie Roll Pop.

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Doug Daugherty can be reached at dedsr1952@gmail.com

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