Home > Holidays & Special Events > Halloween
Old Chester, PA: Halloween
| Related links: |
Some Halloween recollections gleaned from the Guest Book at
"The Newsstand":
"LAST NIGHT BEING HALLOWEEN I REMEMBERED HALLOWEENS AS A CHILD IN SUN VILLAGE. WE MUST HAVE COVERED AT LEAST 70 HOUSES AND HAD TONS OF CANDY. I REMEMBER EVERY YEAR GOING TO A HOUSE ON REMINGTON STREET I THINK THE NAME WAS BARBER, AND THEY GAVE OUT HOMEMADE APPLE TAFFIES THEY ALSO TOOK HOME MOVIES OF EVERYONE THAT CAME TO THEIR HOUSE. IT WOULD BE AMAZING TO SEE THOSE MOVIES TODAY NEEDLESS TO SAY EVERYONE WENT TO THEIR HOUSE TO GET THAT CANDIED APPLE. BACK THEM HALF THE FUN OF HALLOWEEN WAS THE PEOPLE HAD TO GUESS WHO YOU WERE. IF YOU COULD DRESS UP GOOD ENOUGH TO FOOL THEM YOU USUALLY GOT EXTRA CANDY. ONE NIGHT I WAS IN THE ALLY BETWEEN JOHNSON ST AND BALWIN STREET A FRIEND AND A GROUP OF BIG KIDS CAME BY US, ONE OF THEM GRABBED MY CANDY BAG I WAS DRESSED AS A LITTLE BASEBALL PLAYER AND WAS
CARRYING A BAT SO I WACKED HIM OVER THE HEAD WITH MY BAT HE DROPPED THE BAG AND WE GRABBED AND RAN FOR OUR LIVES!!! NEVER KNEW WHO THAT PERSON WAS. BUT I BET HE CHECKED OUT WHAT KIDS HAD IN THEIR HAND BEFORE HE TRIED TO GRAB ANOTHER BAG." "Speaking of Halloween, let me tell you about this. One year a few of us urchins (in the 1940s) went out to "trick or treat" and we thought we'd venture "uptown" in the "upper class neighborhood" where the pickins may be better. We went to the Wetherall (sp?) mansion and rang the bell. A lady answered, politely invited this rag-tag group (about 5 of us) of 10 year olds in. She said NO ONE had come to her house at all that night. She took us through a tour of the "mansion" gave us a bagful of goodies and 25 cents each! God bless her. I think she owned the place." "Duffy---Here's a bookend to your story. This was either 1948 or 49 on Halloween a couple of us from Madison St by the river left the neighborhood (no treats there) and went for better pickens. We also stopped at the same mansion (on 19th or 20th & Providence) where a real lady sat with us while we ate cookies and drank apple cider (which none of us had ever had before). Can't say we were as well received at our other stops in that neighborhood." "Another great memory about Halloween in Chester in the 50's ..... remember how the stores in downtown Chester would paint the display windows. I think art students from the high school would do them for some kind of contest. it was such a treat to go downtown and see them" Share your own stories and recollections about Halloween in Chester!
|
| Halloween
Recollections: Name: Joan Firlein Neil RecollectionsMy favorite memory is the painted store front windows in downtown Chester. The imaginative halloween scenes were painted by local high school students. Name: Joan Firlein Neil RecollectionsMy favorite memory is the painted store front windows in downtown Chester. The imaginative halloween scenes were painted by local high school students. Name: Joan Firlein Neil RecollectionsMy favorite memory is the painted store front windows in downtown Chester. The imaginative halloween scenes were painted by local high school students. Name: Joan Firlein Neil RecollectionsMy favorite memory is the painted store front windows in downtown Chester. The imaginative halloween scenes were painted by local high school students. Name: Madeline Jenkins RecollectionsI remember marching in the parade Halloween night with the Smedley Jr. High Band. We were in the Majorette Club and wore red skirs, white sweaters with a majorette on it and our majorette boots. We really enjoyed it and then went trick or treating afterwards. When I got to Chester High I helped to paint the windows down town. That was a lot of fun whether you won or not. After I got out of high school some of my sorority sisters and I went trick or treating and I made a donkey costume. No one knew us and we had a great time just seeing the people and their reactions. I can't remember ever buying a costume. We always used something of our parents or made our costumes. One year I had a costume made out of cray paper. Halloween was always a great celebration in Chester compared to what is done today. Name: Barbara Bell Creegan RecollectionsMany students of St. Michael's Catholic grade school and other children who lived around 9th & Madison Sts. would stop by the St. Michael's convent in the middle of their trick or treating. The nuns would let us gather on a porch on the side of the convent. It was a chance for us all to see each other as a group, sit down and rest while checking out the goodies in our bags we had received so far, and then be given a glass of apple cider by the sisters. After that break, off we'd go for more trick or treating staying out until we just couldn't walk anymore. In those safer times for children, no need for a parent to go with us. We just went out with another sibling or one of the other children in our neighborhood on that exciting night out. We were lucky to have grown up in those times and in that wonderful city. Name: Barbara Bell Creegan RecollectionsMany students of St. Michael's Catholic grade school and other children who lived around 9th & Madison Sts. would stop by the St. Michael's convent in the middle of their trick or treating. The nuns would let us gather on a porch on the side of the convent. It was a chance for us all to see each other as a group, sit down and rest while checking out the goodies in our bags we had received so far, and then be given a glass of apple cider by the sisters. After that break, off we'd go for more trick or treating staying out until we just couldn't walk anymore. In those safer times for children, no need for a parent to go with us. We just went out with another sibling or one of the other children in our neighborhood on that exciting night out. We were lucky to have grown up in those times and in that wonderful city. Name: Mary Ann Littley Bell RecollectionsMary Lou, I had the privilege of painting the Kinney Shoe Store window in 1960. Most of us were from Smedley Jr. High School. Susan Thomas actually composed the picture, which was a witch trying on shoes. I ended up doing quite a bit of the painting because Sue couldn't get downtown until school let our. If your grades were good you would spend the whole afternoon downtown painting those windows, but if they were marginal you couldn't start painting until after school let out. Sue and I won honorable mention. We were pretty proud of ourselves. Mary Ann Name: Diane Harrison
|
If you have any information and or pictures that you would like to contribute about Chester, please forward it to john@oldchesterpa.com
© 2002 John A. Bullock III.
This page last updated 08/30/07