Charter School students outdid themselves this year with Halloween scarecrows they constructed and placed outside businesses along State Road. Ghost Island had an entire graveyard of spooky characters where rows of zinnias stood only a week ago.
After two windy, rainy days I wondered if we would have trick-or-treaters at all. Both the library and town parties were well-attended, and Mike and I had trick-or-treaters of our own.
Hilary Wallcox, Diane Wall, and Susan Cox brought Skyler and Syrus Wallcox to visit. Skyler was dressed as a mermaid, with a silvery tail, and Syrus was a puffy orange pumpkin.
Next came Tessa and James Rebello with their daughter, Addy, and sleeping baby Reed James Rebello, born on Oct. 22. Reed weighed 9 pounds,12 ounces, “bigger than the Derby’s winning shore bonito,” as his Aunt Hilary described him. He is a healthy, handsome boy. I think he resembles his dad, but Tessa sees her father, Howard. All good. Addy and Reed were dressed as blue and white clouds.
Our last visitor was Iyla Bohan, wearing a very imaginative costume she came up with herself: “I’m a bug in a rug in a playroom.” Her rug was covered with books and toys, a pair of iridescent wings, and she wore glasses with lenses like a fly’s eyes. Iyla was chauffeured by her parents, James and Stephanie, an extremely handsome pair of ghouls dressed for a party.
Earlier in the day, I had been invited to Ben and Nicole Cabot’s to meet their newest member. I am totally in love with Honeycomb Cabot, their 3-month-old miniature dachshund puppy, with the silkiest ears I wanted to pet all day. Honey was most obliging, snuggling in Nicole’s and my arms. My first dog was a miniature dachshund, and I remember holding Romy (the litter was all named for Roman emperors; his full name was Romulus Augustus) for hours on end. Puppies are addictive.
Honeycomb and Reed Rebello had already met. Nicole had pictures.
I was thinking about the haunted house the fire department used to set up in the old Ag Hall, now the Grange. Mike mentioned that it originated at Bill and Betty Haynes’ house for their kids, Janice and Bruce, and friends. So I asked Bill about it.
He said that there had been a pear tree in front of their house, close enough to rig with a loudspeaker, ropes, and pulleys attached to a giant spider Bill concocted and manipulated through an upstairs window. As if that wasn’t scary enough, after a couple of years they decided to turn their whole house into a haunted house. Kids came in the front door, went up the stairs into a series of tableaux set up in bedrooms and the attic, then down the back stairs. Memorable ones included Harry Athearn springing up from a casket as children filed by, Dale McClure as a hatchet-waving madman, John Cotterill chasing visitors with a chainsaw, Norman Lobb breaking through the “bars” of a jail cell, and Debby Athearn conducting a seance at the Haynes’ kitchen table, with Dale’s head appearing at significant moments.
One year, Bill turned his front yard into a graveyard, where figures loomed and yelled “Boo.” Another year, he made a shallow pond filled with creepy underwater creatures that floated and grabbed people’s feet.
All this took about a month of fabrication by Bill and fire department friends. Betty finally decided she wanted her house and husband back, so the Haunted House moved to the Grange, where it was a town attraction for many years.
