RUNNEMEDE REMEMBERED

Growing up in a small town in Southern New Jersey


Thursday, October 20, 2011

Is this for real?

Sometimes I cannot remember fact from fiction, I think. And if have this all wrong, somebody please tell me. Or maybe not. I want to keep this as a nice memory whether its fact or fiction.

I seem to recall that on Halloween day grades K-5 did something special.

All students would come back to school after lunch dressed in their Halloween costumes. I say "would come back to school" because back then there was no lunchroom or cafeteria, and we all had to either pack our lunch (and our Halloween costume if appropriate), or go home for lunch, and during that hour eat lunch, get our costume on, and come back to school ready for the afternoon event.

Of course, this was not an afternoon for any learning. All the students would gather in their classrooms and at 1:30, we would all go down to the school yard -- weather permitting -- and parade around while teachers would watch and decide who had the best costumes. The butterflies were flying on those afternoons. If it rained we would parade in the gym.

Most of the students were dressed as either ghosts or cowboys/cowgirls. When Daniel Boone became popular the cowboy hat changed to a coonskin cap, and the holstered guns were play rifles.

I know I was a ghost, the Lone Ranger, Daniel Boone, and an Indian (native American), complete with homemade bow and arrow. And as I mentioned before I was Snow White.

It was a fun time. I think we all got a small bag of candy corn from our teacher. After the parade and judging we were dismissed to go home. Alas, I never won, not even when I wore the Snow White outfit.

Unofficially, T or T didn't begin until around 3:00 p.m. and my mother would never permit me to go out earlier than that, even if the streets were crowded with other children getting their treats. I was often afraid I would not get that apple taffy! But I always did.

So fellow Runnemede - ites, did I recall this correctly, or is it just a pleasant dream I had one time long ago?

ttfn

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