1974              The Things People do

Soon another Hallowe’en will be gone, and the talk will be about the things the youngsters have done in the name of Trick or Treat. At times the kids do get a bit rough, and we read of very real damage being done in some places, but in the main it does not take much trouble to wash soap off store windows and while outside toilets are getting scarcer all the time, most take only a bit of muscle to get them back up in a standing position.

One thing I have noticed is that grownups who do much of the complaining were the kids once who did a lot of things that might be termed worse than is being done today.

Years ago I was told a story, not about Hallowe’en, but just a run of the mill practical joke. This happened at Emsdale and again it was many years ago. There was a man who kept a store in Emsdale, quite a pillar of the church, and like a lot of other residents of that period e had a cow. There were no dairies with daily deliveries then, but kids needed milk. Then there was a shoemaker, who definitely did not help the church any, though he may have caused a few problems. Then there was a farmer who lived nearby, and who always had a fine field of corn. The farmer and the shoemaker were buddies of a sort, but their manner of living did not endear them to the storekeeper. Now I am not mentioning names, but there are descendants of the storekeeper still around, as well as many of the farmer. The shoemaker left years ago.

Anyone who lived around the turn of the century (1900), or even later, can remember that all, or at least most of the cows wore a bell. That was so whoever was sent to bring the cows home for milking could locate them. And each bell had a sort of different tone, and all the neighbours knew the bell, and to whom it belonged. Well, the storekeeper’s cow was usually kept in the stable or barn overnight. One night the shoemaker had a bright idea, and after everything was quiet he went into the barn and removed the bell from the cow, walked to the farmers corn patch, and made like a cow having itself a feed of green corn. The farmer wakened, and decided he had to drive the cow out. Only thing, when he was in one part of the field of corn, the cow was at the other end. I knew this farmer, and I imagine after a few futile attempts to find the cow, his language was a bit on the vulgar side. I do not know if he stayed long in the corn patch, but next morning he visited the store and in no uncertain terms told the storekeeper what he thought of a man who would let his cow pasture in a farmer’s corn field. Even when the angry farmer was told the cow had not been out of the barn he insisted on looking. Also made the bell ring to be certain it was the same cow. He left, still in bad humour, and the storekeeper did not know what it was all about. A visit to the corn patch revealed that no corn had been destroyed, and if it had been a cow it wore boots. The farmer enjoyed the joke, and made a silent vow to get even, and I was never told of that incident.

But the best one was on Hallowe’en, this was also about the same time. A group of young men, not kids, delighted in pestering another storekeeper, and this was at Novar. This man, of Dutch descent, was for some reason or other, the butt of many jokes. And he was still well liked, and a good citizen. But the young men teased him. He got used to having his toilet upset, but one year he had built a new one, and decided he would protect it. So he armed himself with a double-barreled shotgun, and waited inside the little building. He was not too long waiting, and when he heard voices he called out that he had the shotgun, and would shoot if necessary. The boys did not want to see anyone hurt, but they felt they had to do something. Then one of them thought of the train standing at the station. The store, long since gone, was right close to the railroad, and the little outbuilding right beside the fence. He came up with an idea, and they had to be quick. There were enough that working together they pulled the wire off the posts of the fence that then always followed the R.R., and while some of them wrapped the wire around the closet, the others fastened the other end to the train, just as it started to move. It did not have much speed as the wire tightened, and all the while the poor imprisoned storekeeper was making dire threats about what he would do if they attempted to upset his toilet. But the inevitable happened and the closet started to go the same way as the train. Perhaps the Dutchman had his gun ready to fire, but just as it went over, both barrels discharged, fortunately no one was hurt. But the little frame building came apart, the poor storekeeper fell out unharmed, the train continued on to North B

ay, and the crowd out for larks on this one night of the year, quickly dispersed.

There was a lot of discussion about the rather severe trick played on a harmless and well like man, though most did see a bit of humour in it. But the next day, or perhaps the day after that, the young men got together and decided they should rebuild the outhouse. They were all sober during the escapade, so they knew what they were doing. The end was that the shopkeeper had a newer and better closet, and if my informant was correct, he was not bothered again.

But when this year passes and we wonder how the kids think up such tricks, just remember that years ago we did similar things. One of the men who took part in this incident still lives in Emsdale.