The den was decorated from top to bottom with orange, black, and purple crepe paper streamers. Cutout bats and skeletons hung by strings from the ceiling. Carved pumpkins glowed on the hearth and c
andelabras were alit on the mantle. Mystery boxes were lined up on a long, thin, draped table. A large tin tub fill with water and bobbing apples sat on a bed of sprawled out hay. The ”banquet” table had a luscious array of eerily decorate sandwiches and sweets and a bowl of bubbling punch. All this could be seem from the wide double doors of the den by the costumed fourth grade guests of my first Halloween party. We all anxiously awaited our “hostess“ before entering the room. Suddenly, a bright array of flashes (made by several camera flash cubes and a flood light) startled the guest as they turned to see a great WITCH floating briskly down the hall. Her hands in the air, one yielding her broom, waved over their heads with her cape following as she turned to face the wide-eyed and awe-struck children. There she stood, arms out wide with her cape draping down, black pointed hat, long nose with a wart on its tip, and a few blacked out teeth. The witch squealed her “WELCOME” and gave a most wicked CACKLE and said “FOLLOW ME”.
That WITCH was my MOM! . . . a wife, mother, homemaker, poet, frustrated actress, and grandmother who absolutely loved HALLOWEEN. This was my Mom‘s first Halloween party gig in her full WITCHES ensemble. Both a star and tradition was born that night.