Halloween Pranks

This is the morning that follows Halloween night. I recollect many of those with vivid memories of destruction when I was a child. Riding through town while sitting on the school bus or going to church with my parents, the scene in downtown De Motte looked like a war zone. The whole business section at that time was all of one block long. The store windows were clouded with the bar rubbing of someone's soap. That wasn't the worst, though. Swart's corner, a small parking lot next to one of the two local grocery stores was strewn with debris. In my mind's eye, I see the several outhouses that had been stolen from someone's back yard and dragged to town behind a youth's car. The day after, the local residents needed to make claim to the one they owned and take it home on the back of a pickup truck. The name of the movie, Smashing Pumpkins, was a real memory jogger for me. The street in town and the sidewalks and Swart's corner were filled with smashed pumpkins. Watermelon fields left with excess harvest were raided and those brought to town to drop on the ground and splatter. There were various other items from year to year but those were the most common. One particular year, an airplane from the little rural airport called Cheever's airport had been brought to town. I can imagine how much glee and satisfaction those boys got from that achievement. My father tells of one Halloween night when he was a teen when one of his friends took his Model A Ford and drove the thing up the steps of the school. The pictures of those steps defy any chance of that car not being damaged. All of this mischief could go on because there were no police in our town. We were totally unicorporated and the only law enforcement was twenty miles away in Rensselaer. Obviously, things have changed. I dare say my ride into town this morning will not be at all scenic in the same way as it was years ago. Downtown De Motte, which has now grown to at least a mile of businesses will be neat and tidy and ready for business as usual. I wonder how much parental attitude had to do with all that historic mess. I rather remember grown men getting pleasure by what the youth had gotten away with. Perhaps it was memories of their own mischief that they were recalling. At any rate, we see things differently today. Taking other's property is now consider stealing (rather than borrowing) and will be prosecuted. Making a mess in another's property and especially civil property is not considered a joke any longer.

Has all the mischief been taken out of Halloween here in De Motte or anywhere else? Hardly. I think the devil has gotten sneaky. The mischief and disorder has submerged. Now the movie theaters where horror shows are shown on the big screen provide that fulfillment of devilment kids seem to gravitate to. There are also many towns and even some churches that provide haunted houses for kids to tour. What people don't know or don't really believe is that when they subject their minds to that kind of thing, they invite Satan and all his hosts to join their lives. There are only two kinds of activities in this world. Those that are of the light and those that are of the darkness. I dare say that last night many parents allowed their children to particpate in the darkness.

I wasn't allowed to trick or treat as a child. My parents were cognizant of the dangers in all of the Halloween activites. When we got older, we could put a little make up on and go to the neighbors but it never got beyond that. I guess they thought that was innocent enough. I suppose one could say they just let us dabble. The year l954, my mother planned a little harvest party for us. The was a Saturday, the day before Halloween. She had the basement decorated and the hot chocolate and donuts were all ready on Friday night. The party goers were our neightborhood friends, one of whom is still my close friend today and my two siblings. What my mother didn't know prior to Saturday morning was that she would go into labor during the night on Friday. She was pregnant with her last child. The party went on without a hitch with the help of my very able and always willing Grandmother whom lived in the next house down the street. While we children were bobbing for apples, my father came home and went to sit at his desk as if nothing at all had transpired. Well? You have a baby brother. Excitement!!!! What is his name? Jeryld. Jeryld what? Oh, I don't know....let me think. He concluded that Jeryld's middle name was Alan. There has never been a better party in my life than that one. I was twelve when my youngest brother was born and he is still my baby. A better baby brother one will never find. We learned years later that my mother had given my brother the second name of Lee but when Dad told her he had told the other kids that his name was Jeryld Alan, my mother said, "The kids will have that name all over the county by now so I guess we will stick with it."

I don't see anything wrong in my grandchildren's trick or treat activities. That is, unless they dress in outfits that would express evil. I would not want them to give Satan any honor. Today, I will pray that Jesus will rout out any demonic activity from any of my family members who may have subjected themselves to stuff on his side of the aisle. The Word says, that we are children of the light and that as a result we are to walk in the LIGHT. Happy Reformation Day one day late.