Arvin Cowboy
Life in Rural Arvin in the 50's
Real Name: David L. Norris Gender: male Member Since: June 17, 2007 Last Signed In: April 21, 2009 Profile Views: 411 Blog Views: 1527 Walking to the Library Mr. Barle and the Hearing Aid Trick-or-Treat The El Rancho Theater The Law of Supply and Demand The Contact Lense Locking your Doors Arvin's First Community Center The 500 yard Dash Accident Momma and the Pillsbury Poppin Biscuits July 07 August 07 September 07 October 07 November 07 December 07 January 08 February 08 March 08 April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 August 08 September 08 October 08 November 08 December 08 January 09 February 09 March 09 April 09 May 09 June 09 July 09 August 09 September 09 October 09 November 09 
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Trick-or-Treat
As children in the 1950’s, we never understood the true meaning of the term “Trick-or-Treat”. There was no vandalism, very little mischief and even fewer bullies. No one had store-bought costumes and most Trick-or-Treater’s either had a hand-painted bag over our heads with holes cut for our eyes, nose, and mouth with colored art paper tabs glued all over the face of the bag. A classic “Trick” was to prepare a second bag, leave your own house wearing one bag, change bags and go back to your own house, so that you got one of the popcorn balls you and your mother had spent two evenings making, but mom said you couldn’t have any, because we have to save them for the “Trick-or-Treater’s”.
In one evening, between dark and 9:30 you could visit every house in Arvin and you got homemade treats from most of them. When you went to most houses, even though you were disguised with a bag and an old bath towel safety pinned around your neck, they would address you by name, as the homemade treats were placed in your bag. Usually, I would follow another group up to my own house and remain silent as they screamed “Trick-or-Treat”! But each of us was expected to say “Thank You,” as we received our Treat and my mom would say “you’re welcome David”. Darn! I thought I had really fooled her this year. I think she recognized her bath towel that was still safety pinned around my neck.
I only remember one instance where three older bullies tried to snatch a kid’s bag and they started a tug of war contest with the smaller kid screaming bloody-murder while the paper bag finally broke and candy scattered everywhere across the street. Other kids, parents and homeowners all came from one block away from every direction hollering for them to leave him alone. The hoodlums grabbed a couple of pieces of candy and disappeared into a grape vineyard where they spent the rest of the evening dodging police spotlights and parent’s flashlights. I heard later that the brats had a “Come-To-The-Lord Meeting” with some of the older brothers and we were never bothered again.
One year, I was into making the little string balloon animals, hats, flowers etc. and I was asked to man a booth at the annual Sierra Vista Elementary School Halloween Carnival, where my creations were sold or given out as prizes at one of the booths. I did not have my other way to blow the balloons up, except by mouth and breath and even though I had made up a large box of them for more than a week before the event, we ran out and I wound up blowing myself silly trying to keep up with the kids who won at the bean bag throw, at my booth.
A few people in town went all out and decorated their yards or gave special treats. The underground network of kids meeting at the end of each block, usually did not take long to spread the word of something special in the community and the kids would come a-flockin. Somewhere around the age of high school, your parents would no longer let you go out, so we would be relegated to the candy bowl and we would go to the door to greet the little monsters and pass out candy, “one for you”, one for you,” ”one for you,” ”one for me”.
As we got older our minds got more and more devious. One year we had a large box that a clothes dryer had came in that I decorated and cut several eye holes. I would scare the little kids by scratching or bumping the sides of the box, rocking it back and forth, but the older kids got a ghostly Jack-in-the-Box treatment as they turned to leave. Candy would fly everywhere as they ran off in fright.
My friend Gary Smith remembers dangling a cap gun from the ceiling rafters of his porch cover in a darkened area, where wooden planters had been placed. Then with a second string running through the screen on his window of his bedroom, he would yank it back and forth to make a commotion. His Dad, at the door, would play along and ask the scared kids what was going on over there and the kids would go over and try to see what was causing the noise in the dark. Gary said one small kid looked and said, “I see it ---- It is aaaa ----aaa!” then he turned and ran away.
Rick Maltone, another good friend of mine fondly remembers Pat and Karen Huffman’s infamous Halloween Parties where they set up part of their backyard as a ghostly haunt. You were made to walk through the maze barefoot and blindfolded. In this maze, they had set up one section of the floor scattered with little Vienna sausages. As you walked through squishing the sausages between your toes, you remembered their dogs. In another section they had hung wet spaghetti from boards that hung over you. You were positive that you were walking through cobwebs and spider tendrils as they brushed past your face. He thought it was Very Frightful, but more fun to listen to your friends as they went through the same sections, after you had emerged unharmed and knew what they were experiencing.
Linda; the editor for the Arvin Tiller, pointed out that she and Dennis; her husband, were married on Halloween. Their cake was a haunted house with an attached graveyard and Linda’s wedding march was Alfred Hitchcock's theme song. I can just picture all of the “Death of a bachelor” jokes a-flyin. It is good to see that other people exist with a slightly distorted, “far side”, sense of humor.
When my son Michael was a small tike, he was fascinated with fire trucks and firemen so my wife; Valerie, dressed him up as a fireman and his baby sister, Katie, who was only a month old was dressed in white pajamas with black spots marked all-over with a marks-a lot marker so that she was his Dalmatian fire dog for her first Halloween.
My last celebrated Halloween, was with a combined Arvin De Molay’s/ North Bakersfield Jobe’s Daughters, where I and my then girlfriend Sherry dressed up as hobos, complete with things tied in a bandana on the end of a stick, slung over our shoulders.
It has been said that boys never grow up, they only get older! So, TRICK-OR-TREAT!!! Do you have any popcorn balls left? Have a Great and Safe Halloween this year.
The End
1 comments from 1 users
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posted by
sagefever
on Oct 14, 2007 at 11:53 AM
Thanks for the stories.We did a backyard haunted "clothes line" one year for the small tykes,complete with my eldest as Dracula,the spaghetti bowl of brains..we thought it was so bad,and so obvious..till they saw Dracula and ran screaming every which way.."willing suspension of disbelief" is a very powerful tool.
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