……….The New Cumberland Lions Club Halloween Party is tomorrow (Thursday) night at 7:15 p.m. right after the trick or treat concludes. It was my favorite part of a holiday I did not embrace nor could I ever figure out a way to get right. It’s a testimony to the Lions Club that the aside from the COVID lockdown has been a constant in kid’s lives in our small town. While the Lion members have changed through the years, the little ghosts and goblins have grown and now have their own children participating.
Living in the country with few neighbors, trick or treating was not something I did. At age seven I had infectious hepatitis and my dietary restrictions included chocolate. With no chocolate to be scored, the desire to dress up and go door to door held no promise.
But the Lions Halloween Party was another matter as we kids flocked for games, a movie and competition for best costume. I only won once. My mother was not creative so my costumes were often obtained in a quick trip to Grahams General Store. I once wore my Dad’s navy pea coat and was a Navy man; countless sheets, stiffly ironed, made me a ghost. The imagination station did not reside at my house.
…….But one year, the thing that was primary on everyone’s mind was the Hong Kong Flu. Back then, it did not strike the fear in hearts that COVID now does. You could make a joke about it and I went as Hong Kong Flu. I wore my jamies. I carried a bed pan on one hand and a box of kleenex and thermometer in my other hand. Lipstick smeared on my nose made me look sick and my mussed up hair showed how miserable I was. As I went out the door, my mother who had made her first and final stab at a Halloween costume, said, “Just look miserable, like you’re ready to throw up, maybe gag when the judges look at you and you’re a winner.”
……..She was right. I won in my age category for the first and only time. I managed to keep my miserable intact, retched as judges looked and scored quite a few laughs.
……..Fast forward to adulthood to me as a mother struggling to keep up with kids, jobs, and attending college and my own kids were attending the Lions Halloween party. While Bill Murray, my Dad, and Rev. Fields had been replaced by Bob Manypenny, Jim Wells, Pete Kerr and their Dad as sponsors, the party continued to be the Halloween Highlight. It was a bummer for my kids for their costumes came from K-Mart or in a pinch, Thrift Drug, They eyed their counterparts whose mothers had transformed them into R2D2 from Starwars (tin foil) and a mummy from Frankenstein (toilet paper). As a mother, I marveled at the creativity of these mothers and knew in my heart that these mothers were never reduced to wrapping their kids sandwich in plastic that contained hose when there was no tin foil, waxed paper or little bags to be found. I thought at that moment, my kids would have traded me for a Mom more proficient in Mom things, but I had no redeeming qualities so they were stuck with me.
Tomorrow night another generation of kids will enjoy the efforts of the Lions community service and win or lose, have a Happy Halloween..
