At a Fall Festival at Bellefontaine UMC many years ago, me and Pepper dressed up as black-eyed peas. We thought we were funny, but not everyone caught on! HA!
For many, Halloween holds a lot of fun memories.
Whether it was fishing for prizes at the Halloween Carnival at Eupora Elementary School or getting to wear the Superman costume you have wanted each year, but finally found, Halloween was a time of innocent fun and moments that will never be forgotten.
Christie Bailey Colvin of Tomnolan said her favorite Halloween years were those we spent on the Navy base.
“There were kids for hours,” Colvin said. “I remember buying five paper grocery bags of candy and running out! We all spent the evening outside, enjoying the neighbors.”
Maybe 2001-2002? Kimberlee Pepper Nichols, Katelyn Pepper, Kathi Pepper Smith and Elizabeth Pepper getting ready for a hayride.
Raleigh Richter of Maben said he remembers going trick or treating with my younger sister one particular year.
“We had gone to all of the usual houses in our small town,” Richter said. “Then I knew of a house that was off the main path. You had to walk the road through the local cemetery to get to this house. After a long uphill walk through the cemetery, we reached the house. The woman came to the door and said, ‘oh I am so glad to see y’all since I have seen no treaters.’ So she gave us both all the candy she had. It was worth the uphill walk through the cemetery road.”
Stephanie Arnett of Starkville said she always loved trick or treating as a group with kids up front and parents behind watching. “Freedom and safety all in one!,” Arnett said.
Linda Pepper said as a kid, they used pillow cases to collect candy on Halloween.
“By the end of the night we were toting it like a Santa sack,” Pepper said.
One particular Halloween back in 1982, a bunch of Linda’s friends got together to rolled John Everett and Betty Jo Pepper’s yard in the Peppertown community of Bellefontaine.
“John Everette came out with a shotgun yelling and his dogs were barking crazy,” Pepper said. “We all took off running through the pasture back to Granny’s and I fell in a hole. I laid there terrified the dogs were going to come eat me up. I finally got the nerve to get up and run but couldn’t really run since I was still recuperating from having (my first daughter, Jennifer) a few weeks before that. Years later, I told that part of the story to John Everett and he laughed and laughed then apologized for scaring me so bad. Sure miss him and George Pepper. They made Halloween in Peppertown fun.”
Her daughter Kimberlee Pepper Nicolas said some of her favorite Halloween memories were of the late George Pepper “getting us” with his Halloween masks, and one time her grandmother, Bonnie Pepper, decided to get in on the fun! “Granny” dressed up as the scarecrow decoration on her front porch and scared her grandchildren.
Margie Pepper, Katelyn Pepper, and the late George Pepper (wearing one of his famous Halloween masks) at a Fall Festival at Bellefontaine UMC in 2000 or 2001?
Mary Catherine Carmichael said Mrs. Cleo Lawrence, “a wonderful lady from Walthall,” had one of those plastic masks.
“It was of Frankenstein, right down to the screws in the neck,” Carmichael said. “She had that mask every year. Well, when my own children got old enough to trick or treat, I brought them to Walthall because I knew everyone and felt my children would be safe. I took them to Mrs. Cleo’s and they came back to the car so excited that she had on a mask! Well, I had to check it out and it was the same Frankenstein mask she had worn when I was trick or treating!”
Becky Williamson Oliver is a teacher at Eupora Elementary and for the past few years she has sent a note to the parents in her classroom and asked them to bring their children by her house to trick or treat.
“I love it and so do they,” Oliver said.
Kaitlin Walls Hughley at a Fall Festival at Bellefontaine UMC in 2002 (?). Her whole family dressed as Wizard of Oz characters.
For those of us attending Eupora Elementary School in the late 1970s and early 80s, there was the Halloween Carnival.
Mary Catherine Carmichael said she remembers having so much fun at the Halloween Carnival at the elementary school.
“Each classroom had a specific theme,” Carmichael said. “There would be a cake walk, go fishin, dart throwing, a haunted house and much more. It was such fun.”
Tammie Turner McGarr said she used to love the Halloween carnivals at school.
“They were a lot of fun,” McGarr said. “I also remember one of the teachers (I think it was Mrs. Travie Bowen, but I’m not 100 percent sure) would dress up like a witch and come into our classroom. Those were fun times!”
It was Travie Bowen all those years ago.
“So happy you remember,” Bowen said. “I loved it and had so much fun! Thank you for remembering!”
So make popcorn balls and caramel apples, carve a pumpkin, find a cute costume and be sure to make great memories this Halloween.
See this story in the October 26, 2016 edition of The Webster Progress Times at http://websterprogresstimes.com/2016/10/27/local-residents-share-halloween-memories/
Gwen Sisson 