The special meaning of Halloween

Halloween has always been a fun event for kids for many years. I can remember that, as a kid, I would don the old rubber mask and go door-to-door trick or treating for candy. Back in those days, the masks were made out of rubber, and you would work up a sweat inside of that mask, even on the coldest of nights. The biggest problems were seeing and breathing with that heavy rubber mask on. My Uncle Lloyd was like a kid when it came to Halloween, and when my sister was old enough we would go down to my grandma’s where Lloyd, who was not an outdoors person, would make a little fire in the yard for us to roast hot dogs and marshmallows and my grandma or my aunt Alice would make us hot chocolate.

 

In looking back at those days, Lloyd did a pretty good job of making a fire out of dry leaves and sticks, at least the fire got hot enough to char the hot dogs. I know that Lloyd got a bigger thrill out of doing this than we did, but we did it to make them happy.

 

There are some holidays that bring special meaning to a person. Halloween isn’t a holiday, but to Uncle Lloyd it was special. I can remember staying at my grandma's on Friday nights and walking up the hill to the football field to watch the Tigers play. After the game I would walk back to my grandma’s and have hot cocoa and cookies and watch the Friday Night Frights on channel 6. Lloyd was a big fan of monster movies and channel 6 had them every Friday. Dracula, the Werewolf and Frankenstein kept me on the edge of my seat for many nights. Those were old movies and always in black & white, which made them seem even more scary. I really liked those old movies, but the new ones are not anything that interests me, a little too gory for my liking.

 

The colorful leaves are going away fast in our area, so enjoy them while you can. I believe that the parks like Edgewater will be open until the first snow. We have so many beautiful parks in our area and now Pickerel Lake has a new pavilion, which is really nice. This adds another nice park for us to enjoy.

 

After I graduated, I had a job driving a milk truck for Conger Creamery. There were three of us that worked there and lived in Albert Lea, so we carpooled. Some days after work, we would go to Pickerel Lake and do some evening fishing for bullheads. This was a lot of fun and we usually ended up catching some dandy ones. One of the guys that I worked with was Bob Thomas, and he would take the fish home where he and his mother would clean them, and a couple of days later, she would have me and Bill, the third guy, over for a meal. She also had us over one night for a meal of snapping turtle. We had found this turtle on the way home from work one night and Bob insisted that we stop and catch it. Bob’s mother, once again, fixed a delicious meal out of that big turtle. I guess that it was a preview of what was to come when I went into the service. I have to say that I don’t remember that snapping turtle tasting all that bad.

 

Until next time: As 400,000 hunters prepare for firearms deer hunting season, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reminds hunters about some ways to be safe and successful.

 

“Know before you go, so you can focus on having a great season,” said Barb Keller, Minnesota DNR big game program leader. “It’s easy to use our website to find out what you need to know.”

 

The Minnesota DNR’s online DPA lookup tool provides a comprehensive step-by-step list of information hunters need to consider before heading to deer camp.

 

Please show your support for our troops who are now deployed. These service men and women are making that sacrifice, so that we may have the many freedoms that we enjoy today.