Favorite Family Holiday

Our Favorite Holiday

Think about it. As a neighborhood, Halloween was the only one that was associated with the streets of "The Plat." In addition to that, Halloween is a favorite family holiday for my parents, my daughter and now, my grandsons. It is a photo-op-fun holiday. I have a lot of photos to choose from but these are the four I love the most.

As my mother went to RISD, she could sew really well and she was creative to boot. She made the French maid costume for an adult party that she and my dad attended. It is one of my most looked at photos on the Web. It's also pretty darn controversial. I wore that costume to a Halloween party and I can tell you, I got a lot of attention. Yes, I got pinched. That's all you need to know.

My gregarious father, loved telling stories and writing poetry. When I grew up, I used to get Halloween cards from him with special poems inside. It was OUR holiday. Here's one that has survived.

In the early years of "The Plat", fathers took kids out for Trick or Treat to just the nearby neighbors. I had to sing a song to get a treat. Dad told me, many years later, that we couldn't go to too many houses because it was customary for the father to drink a shot at each house. Of course, as I got older, we roamed the safe neighborhood streets, guided by the street lights, in huge groups. My mom told me that kids still came to our house on Hilltop Drive every year. 

When I got old enough to wear the "hobo" costume shown here, I was going to Halloween parties held at houses. That year, 7th or 8th grade, I went to the Girl Scout Leader's house in Oaklawn for a party. She had a haunted basement where you followed a rope walkway around and got slapped with wet strips of sheets blown by small fans and touched icky "eyeballs". The screaming of young teenage girls is quite an experience.

Halloween was fun in my neighborhood in Bridgewater, too, so my daughter loves this holiday. I pay for the costumes for my grandsons. Dad would approve. Tell me, what are the odds that I now live in a neighborhood where Halloween is celebrated with 80 trick or treaters? To top it off, I live next to a young family that has a yearly Halloween party. Places may change but good times remain the same. 

Life in "The Plat" can live on. You can go home again. Just ring a doorbell in October and you are there.

Halloween 2013

Halloween 2013, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Happy Halloween to all my readers. 

Anthony and Grayson love Halloween too!

Halloween 1952

Halloween 1952 in Cranston, RI

I have always loved Halloween! The back of this photo is dated July, 1953 and since people didn't run right out and get their photos developed, this must be Halloween, 1952.

This photo is very faded so I worked on it quite a bit before posting it. I just noticed that I have on a "rain hat" over my costume. My mother was a "helicopter parent" and bundled me up whenever SHE felt cold. It must have been a rainy and cold Halloween night. I am wearing a Bugs Bunny costume and holding an egg. If I didn't remember this costume, future generations would think this was an Easter photo! (Label your photos now!)

Many years later, my Dad told me that he took me around the neighborhood and at each house was offered a "shot" by the man while I sang "Wide Open Spaces" to entertain the woman who lived in the house. Good thing we walked! Certainly, this is not a Halloween tradition I would continue. At this time, there were not a lot of houses with children in them. By 1956, this changed.

I am surprised that my parent's photo collection doesn't have more Halloween photos in them. My mother must have forgotten to take them. It seemed that my father was ever so slow to come home to take me out. I even had to wait for him to eat supper. It took forever! 

Fearful Things

Vent, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Fearful Things!

Never mind witches, goblins, vampires and zombies, I can tell you what things kids are really afraid of. I expect you have forgotten all about something in your elder relative's home that scared you!

I was reminded of it this week when my daughter and I replaced a floor vent in both our homes with ones that were more attractive. (Do you like my new one pictured here?)

When I was a small girl, we would go often to my great aunts home on West Broad St. in Westerly. In her large living room and dining room area, there was a hug heating vent in the floor. It must have been created to heat the whole of the downstairs rooms. It was massive. When the furnace roared to life, it caused a maelstrom of dust and air! I was terrified the first time it happened. After that, I avoided walking in that room.

My mother thought I was the most fearful of little children. I didn't like riding in the convertible, didn't like heights and didn't like to recklessly jump off the concrete back steps. Mom was a thrill seeker as long as it did not muss her hair or clothes. She had priorities. 

My grandparents (and my husband's parents) too had radiator heat in their rooms. My daughter told me she remembered being afraid of the noise. See, these childhood memories are worthy of Halloween fright?

I wasn't afraid of the radiators because my grandmother kept the radiators on full blast in both bathrooms. It was like the jungle in there. She hated a cold toilet seat. It was so hot in there, one simply could not breathe. You went in and got out as soon as possible. The towels were toasty warm. 

Cemetery Cake

Cemetery Cake, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

The Sweet Dead 

Last Halloween, I made this cute cake based on a "recipe" in a magazine. I always take shortcuts because I like sweets and eat too much of them so the less time they hang around my house, the better.

This is an 8x8 chocolate store bought cake with chocolate frosting. I added chocolate sprinkles and candy pumpkins. The gravestones are Milano cookies with RIP put on them with cake gel.

I am repeating showing this here in case you have to bring a goodie to a fall party. You could also use cupcakes. Yum. Love the dead.

 

Frazel Graveyard, 2011

Frazel Graveyard, 2011, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Each year, we enjoy marking our "fake" graveyard. Well, this year we barely got it up and photographed before it began to snow. What a terrible Halloween it was! The town cancelled Halloween. One little girl came to our door.

Fortunately, our grandson came over and we went next door to a party. I think he's going to love Halloween as much as I do.

How am I ever going to get back to work?

Cemetery Cake

Cemetery Cake, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Granite-in-My-Blood Cemetery Cake 

I yelped with delight upon opening an October issue of Family Circle Magazine because they featured this cemetery cake in their monthly recipes.

Because we are a small family, I decided to make a small version of the cake and "cheat" somewhat with the ingredients. I purchased the Devil's food square cake shown and substituted the crumbly chocolate with chocolate sprinkles. My mom called these "ants".

 It takes a steady hand to do the lettering on the cookies. I wouldn't want to try any names or dates. As you can see I saved the real recipe in case I wanted to make this next year.


Happy Halloween.

Tom's Halloween Poem

A Halloween Remembrance for my Dad

My father, whose name was Tom, missed our Halloween excursions through the neighborhood so much that after I grew up he would send me a Halloween card with a handwritten poem.

Sadly I did not keep all the cards and the poems, but I do have this one in his own handwriting which I think is the Halloween after we got married, which would make it October, 1972. By the way, you can see that I already have the nickname before the one you know, (Midge). Wheat is short for "Wheastsie" which stands for sweetie! Complicated, yes, but it rhymes!

A Halloween message to daughter Wheat,
Dad's old pal for Trick or Treat.

Now you are married to a guy named Steve,
You are not here on our great Eve,
It was fine when you were just plain Midge,
But that's all water under the bridge.

We will take the glass out of the old storm door,
Goblins and witches will come as of yore.
They will just descend upon us like the atom bomb,
Most will call out," Hello, Tom!"

Put out the lights and close the door,
Guess there won't be any more.
We are out of goodies, that is sad,
I'll just stick in my hand and rattle the bag!

I'll miss you, Dad.

Halloween 1952

Halloween 1952, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Cartoons were big for kids in the 1950s. I begged my mother for the Bugs Bunny costume that I am wearing in this photo.

I have one of the chairs in this photo in my bedroom today.

The Dragon

The Dragon
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel

Family history is about making your own history as well as remembering and researching people in the past. Grandson Anthony's second Halloween was celebrated in a big way. Grandma wore her new autumnal gravestone sweatshirt. (Do you see Anthony looking out the widow?)

Since he's not used to trick or treat, we went to his house. He enjoyed the ball and the balloon we gave him. We took many photos (some outside) . I used my Flip video camera to make a few short clips because he is just so cute. He's learned to kick the leaves.

I am using Windows 7 on my desktop computer and it came with Windows Live Movie Maker. It is not as good as the version for XP but at least I got started with it. I like making movies.

The Dragon and the Leaves

Well, the fun is over (we enjoyed our neighborhood children) and we are taking down our decorations. Next holiday up is our wedding anniversary on Friday.

Midge the French Maid

Midge the French Maid
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel

Today I am participating in a Facebook group event called Scan-fest. I have created a physical file folder to hold items to be scanned and then archived and a folder on my hard drive with today's date. I dusted (get it?) my scanner and cleaned the glass and let it dry completely before scanning this funny photo of myself. (My cousin Thomas and Facebook buddy put me up to this and you don't want to know why!)

I don't remember the ancient family photos on the wall behind me. I am shocked at noticing them as I am a teenager in this photo and should remember these portraits!

They are not in my family collection. I THINK they must be Isaac Denison, Jr. and his wife Levina Fish. I am going to a party at a friends house as it is Halloween, 1961.

Notice the transistor radio I am dusting. If you don't know what that is, you'd better do a Google search. No, I am not linking to it for you.