This doesn't seem to be turning out to be a very good night for trick or treating.  It's warmer than it has been, but there's been a steady misty rain since about noon, and it doesn't seem likely it will let up for the ghosts and goblins.  At least it isn't snowing - yet.  That could certainly happen at higher elevations.

I probably have mentioned this before, but every Halloween I think back to when I was a kid growing up on the farm on Cabot Plain.  I remember going out only perhaps a couple times to "trick or treat."  When I was perhaps a second or third grader, my Grandmother Bolton showed me how to make noise-maker from an empty wooden sewing thread spool.  She found one in the drawer of her old treadle Singer, and showed me how to notch the edges with a jack knife, wind a string onto it and then, holding the spool against the glass of a window with a pencil through the hole in the spool, pull the string to make it turn.  The result, if done correctly, was a loud rattling sound.  It took coordination, not so much to cut the notches, most farm kids grew up whittlin', but holding that pencil so the notches on the spool had contact with the window wasn't so easy.  I do remember that after putting up with the noise a reasonable time, Grandma gave me one of her doughnuts and told me it was time to go home.  One of her doughnuts was worth more than a whole bag of candy, and I'm sure I went home happy.

I remember reading ghost stories at school on Halloween, and the parties we sometimes had.  I recently came across some pictures of Halloween when I was in school in West Danville, about 1942 or 43, I think.  I don't remember much about what we were doing - I guess we probably just dressed up that day and perhaps had a party the last hour of the school day.  I can't say we four were a very scary bunch, and wonder what the rest of the kids looked like.  I found another photo from the same era when we were obviously putting on a minstrel show.  Those were great fun, and as I think we used burnt cork on our faces.  Students today cannot do blackface, of course, but back then minstrel shows were common, performed not only by school children, but adults, as well.  We learned lots of great songs, and something of the southern culture, I suppose, although probably it was badly skewed.  There was "Swanee River," "Polly-Wolly-Doodle," "Dixie", and "Camptown Races," among other great Stephen Foster songs for these shows.  The jokes were silly, but the audiences would always laugh, and everyone had a good time.

Now I'll have "Camptown Races" running through my mind and hear Emerson Lang calling out, "Up tempo!  Up tempo!" as only he could do it. 

We hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween tonight.