Halloween

A 1950’s dress-up party. The girl second from left in lower portion of picture is Paula Grisham who later married LeRoy Walls. 

Photo courtesy of

  
Paula Grisham Walls  

Written by 
LeRoy Walls 
CEO 

I wore my plastic "old man" Halloween mask. It cost 49¢ at the dime store, and Keith had used it at last year’s party. I wore old clothes, had a hunched back, used a cane and walked with a limp. I thought I was pretty convincing, but everyone seemed to know that is was me.

It was 1956, and I was 12 years old. The person that had everyone fooled was dressed like a man and had a woman’s stocking over their head and hair to hide their features. It turned out to be Beth Pierson that fooled us all -- partly due to the good costume and acting but also because she had told everyone she would be out of town -- pretty sneaky!

Aunt Wilma had their house decorated with orange and black crepe paper. Their hardwood floor was all covered with leaves and peanut hulls. When no one seemed to be looking I took a little run and did a beautiful slide -- but unfortunately Mom didn’t appreciate the beauty of it!

There were kids’ games with prizes to be won. I hoped to win a tin frog that clicked! There were also prizes of wax lips and black licorice sticks. We bobbed for apples in a galvanized tub like the one we used for taking our Saturday night bath.

After the games we were invited to sit around a big table, which was actually a bed sheet, supported by a wood frame. We were told that the wicked Oliver Shagnasty had been brutally and deservedly destroyed by a pack of wild dogs, and we were to be witnesses of his passing. His remaining body parts would be passed by us one by one under the sheet.

While the wonderfully bloody and gory details of his demise were being told, his remaining parts were sent past us for our enjoyment. We could only feel the items under the bed sheet and wouldn’t learn what they really were until later. Peeled grapes represented his eyeballs, chicken livers represented his liver, a wet sponge represented his brains, his hand was depicted by a stuffed rubber glove, night crawlers represented the worms that burst from his stomach, long macaroni represented his spilt guts and many other interesting items represented other parts of his mutilated body.

The disgust and fright by the girls as they handled the body parts made it even more enjoyable for all of us guys. Whether you liked the body parts or not -- none of us in the Mt. Pisgah community would soon forget the great Halloween party at Uncle Floyd and Aunt Wilma Walls.

12/31/1999