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Show Volume XI THE Issue I OGDEN VALLEY NEWS Page 9 October 15, 2004 Valley Memories—“Trick or Treat” By Sherman LeMoyne Hislop In the Valley, before Wwil, Halloween was not a one-day holiday occurring on the 1St of October. Halloween was a month long event beginning on October | and escalating until midnight on October 31. The pranks were not intended to harm or cause property damage that would incur financial expenses. Also, it was understood that pranks would not be played on — ladies, especially if they were widow tioowever, October was a month for ingenuity, and there were those who were masters at it. A favorite prank, prior to the 1930s, was tipping over outhouses. Jed was one of the first in the Valley to build a home with indoor plumbing. Still, being a man who grew up in the mountains, he kept an outhouse next to his barn. Je Z de er mined that his outhouse would not be Halloween target. He let see of the local boys know of his intentions to be in the outhouse with a shotgun on Halloween, and warned that anyone who came near it would find their back-end filled with buckshot! A few of the young dudes, after having a beer in Hogan’s saloon, decided they would test Jed’s capability. They took their horses and lassos and lassoed it and tied the ropes to the horns of their saddles. They pulled the outhouse over and drug it down the alley at full gallop for about a hundred feet. Meanwhile, Jed was trapped in the outhouse hollering and cussing. Finally, he aimed his shotgun out of the toilet hole of the outhouse, fired, and shouted, “When you stop dragging this crapper I’Il get you!” After that incident, Jed used only indoor plumbing. Jed was a favorite target for many years. He had a nice home in Huntsville with a concrete front porch. John and Vern went to a nearby barn and filled a paper bag with fresh cow manure, then added a newspaper to the bag and set it on Jed’s porch by the front door. They then set the newspaper on fire and rang the doorbell before running away. When Jed came out of the house in his Sunday best and saw the paper bag burning, he tried to stomp the fire out. In the process he got cow manure all over himself. About the time Jed was getting the fire out, John and Vern came around the corner of the house with the water hose. They said they’d seen the fire and wanted to help him put it out before it caused any damage. He thanked the boys for their consideration, not realizing they were the ones who had caused the fire. Monkey Joe, an old bachelor in town, had an outhouse on a corner lot halfway between his barn and his home. His outhouse was also a favorite Halloween target. Finally, after it had been tipped over many times, Joe leaned poles against all four sides hoping to make it more difficult to tip over. On a clear Oaihes night in the Valley, you can almost read by the moonlight. On such a night, John was the organizer of the evening’s activity for a group of about ten boys. s they approached the outhouse, he appointed two boys to get on each pole e said, “Now, when I holler ‘go!’ pull the poles away and Ken and I will tip it over.” (Such capable and well organized team efforts as these probably helped many of the Valley boys to carry out their duties and responsibilities as servicemen during WWII. One member of the group even received the Silver Star for heroic services. John had with him an eight-year-old brother he was supposed to be tending. After the boys made their plans, he left his brother outside the gate as he was too little to participate. The boys were very quiet as they took hold of the poles holding up the outhouse. When John gave the signal, they pulled the poles away. Ken and John pushed on the outhouse, but it had been tipped over so many times that, instead of tipping over, it fell apart. The outhouse seat was still standing. Sitting there, in the bright moonlight night, was Joe. When the outhouse fell apart, Joe was trying to pull up his pants. To the young boy who was watching from outside the gate, it seemed like time was standing still. For an instant, nobody moved. The ten boys were wondering what had happened. Joe stopped trying to pull up his pants. Then, in a flash, all the boys ran and jumped over the gate. John grabbed his younger brother by his suspenders. The boy who could normally cover only about three feet in a running stride was suddenly covering over ten feet as John lifted and pulled him by the suspenders as they headed down into a culvert to hide. With John’s ingenuity, a group of five boys used a different tactic on another outhouse. Instead of tipping it over, they moved it back about three feet. In front of the outHealey covering its usual position, they put a piece of cardboard. When the man came out to use the outhouse in the dark, he fell through the cardboard covering and found himself waist-deep in the muck! One Halloween, John, Dean, and a group of friends had a goal to tip over every outhouse in town. After accomplishing most of their goal, they realized they would have to tip over their own to divert suspicion. Their father was an early riser and when he found the outhouse tipped over, he knew his boys were guilty. He made them get up at 5:00 in the morning, after having had only two hours of sleep, and tip it back into position. In the 1930’s, a gymnasium was added to the back end of the old Huntsville Junior High. There was about a twenty-four inch distance between the side of the old schoolhouse and the new gym. To the young students, it was a challenge to inch their way up between the two buildings to the flat roof of the gymnasium. One Halloween season, ten or twelve boys worked their way up between the walls to reach the roof of the gymnasium. They had already taken apart a farm wagon and had brought along all the pieces—the wheels, tongue, axles, and the part of the wagon that held cargo. By using ropes, they took the wagon up one piece at a time and reassembled it on the roof. On top of the gymnasium the next morning was a fully assembled wagon. Even the fathers thought it was a pretty ingenious operation The Huntsville school set back from the street about forty feet. There was a fifteen foot wide sidewalk where classes lined up outside the entrance. When the bell rang, students marched into class semi-military style, one class at a time. Under John’s tutelage, his group decided that if they could pack enough junk and equipment in front of the school between the building and the street, they would not have to attend school the next day. This was a great challenge. A hay wagon filled with hay was pulled to the front of the school close to the doors. They tied some cows to the hay wagon. By using fifteen or so boys, they were able to pull a wagon filled with logs and park it in front of the school. They unloaded logs from the wagon, placing them in spaces between the schoolhouse and the street. They also brought in bales of hay, lawnmowers, wheelbarrows, pile and rakes. By midnight, it was quite impressive sight. They were confi a fiat their efforts would prevent TRICK OR TREAT cont. on page 10 Historical Photo Threshing in 16911. From left bottom: Gaits P.C. Winter, 7. Niels waa. 8.Peter Winter, 9. Oscar Stromberg,, 10. Oscar Geerstsen, 11. Dick Emmertsen Top row: 1. Earl Halls, 2.. Peter Peterson,3. Jens N.C. Winter.4. 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