Halloween, then and now
In the 1920s a group of young people, probably college age, had a unique party. Everyone was to come dressed in exactly the same clown suit. Well, not the same, but the same pattern. They were white with big black polka-dots all over them. Of course, they were to wear a mask. They were given instructions to be at a certain corner at a certain time. For instance, two people would meet at a certain street corner, not knowing who they were. From their corner each couple would walk to the home where they were to meet for the party. When they were given the go sign to unmask it must have been hilarious.
This year, I just put a big bowl of treats out on the porch, hoping the children would be polite and just take one piece. After an hour I checked and there was not one piece left. It makes you wonder. I hear the children's costume parade downtown was a big success.
I'm reading a couple of books. One is "Angle of Repose," by Wallace Stegner, 1971. A man in a wheelchair writes about his pioneer grandmother. He gets his story from her letters.
"You Might As Well Live, The Life and Times of Dorothy Parker," by John Keats. She was a New Yorker in the 1920s, a writer of poems and satire during my era.
Oh yes. I have "The Oxford Companion to the English Language," edited by Tom McArthur. Now that gives you something to think about.
— NORMA HANNAFORD
