All Hallows Eve FTLComm - Tisdale October 31, 1999 This house is one of the first several years to begin a tradition of decorating for Halloween and each year the collection and detail has steadily increased. This picture was taken just at sunset last night.

With television programmers going to the limit this past week ever effort has been made to dig up all the recent and ancient horror movies and the sit coms have all taken on at least some form of proclaiming themselves part of the Halloween at the end of the century. The handout candy went on at half price yesterday and costumes galore can be purchased in the stores with far more concern about safety then has ever been the case.

My trick or treating days ended when I was in grade five. That year before I went out myself my mother had me take my little brother around the village to get his bag of candy and some other parents heard that I was taking Allan around and asked my mom to have me take their young child as well. So I assembled about eight short people and we set off around the town. It was a cold and wet Halloween with snow and ice, puddles frozen over with black water only partly sealed in below. By the time we got back to our house I was completely exhausted. Two of my people had been drenched as they had fallen into icy water but by the time we were in the house all of the crying had stopped and mother served them all hot chocolate and dried them off, I did not go out again that night. The following Halloween my tribe had reached fifteen and for each year there after until I left the village when I graduated the same ritual was repeated as I took this crowd of preschoolers, sometimes toddlers from door to door, sometimes in groups of over twenty-five and I even had other teenagers who would come along to help. In grade seven or Eight at a construction crews trailer, one of the workers charged the door to frighten who was knocking, not knowing they were little people, they all came out and pitched in looking through the long grass to find the twenty little people that had scattered into the terrified night. Most were to shaken to proceed and we went home early with costumes askew and whimpers of fear.