The
worst part about trick or treating was trying to fit that flimsy
costume over your bulky winter coat if it was cold out – but it didn't
stop us from having a blast. I can't begin to tell you how much my
son's mask and accessories set me back this year. It's shameful. My
justification was how excited he got when he put on the get-up and wore
it to a classmates costume party.

The old Ben Cooper costumes
came in that small box with the cellophane covered opening so you could
see the mask. The mask was the thinnest possible plastic available at
the time. It had the skinny elastic held in place by putting the little
metal ends through the holes in the mask. I often ended up breaking the
elastic. Sometimes the holes in the mask would split and spread open.
Dad would have to make a new hole or tape the hell out it. I'm pretty
sure the wool hat Mom made me wear under the mask helped break the
elastics. That combined with the fact that I had a pretty big head to
begin with.

Those costumes were okay except for the fact that
the masks only covered the front of your face. Your hair, ears, head
and neck were exposed. For us kids, those costumes were great.
Woolworths and WT Grants were our Halloween Costume headquarters.

I'll
never forget those houses where you would get a handful of loose,
unwrapped popcorn dropped into your sack. Sometimes it would be a few
pennies scattered over the Milky Ways and Three Musketeers bars.

Here are some of my friend's recollections of Somerville Halloweens of yesterday:


Those were the days. There were so many houses to go to, and your
parents didn't have to worry about any houses to stay away from. And
the candy bars were BIG. We used to fill up our bags, go home and dump
them out, then head out again for more. I had so much candy one year, I
still had some left in January.

ÔÄ≠ The Healey School Parades –
all the kids in the school would dress in costumes and walk some of the
streets. The kids loved seeing some of the teachers in costumes and all
the parents would stand on the sidewalks cheering and taking pictures.
Did anyone else carry noisemakers such as metal clickers or spinners?


It was a tradition to go to Nana & Nonno's house on Westwood Road
so they could give us an apple with a quarter inside! Hey, what can I
say, it was the 50's.

 When it rained we still went out Рas
"fishermen" with yellow slickers and those wide yellow hats. We
finished our small block and then went out to Cedar Street to the
triple deckers – 3 times the candy in one house!

 I actually
don't have any memories, but I do know that the late Bobby "Boris"
Pickett who wrote and recorded "Monster Mash" was from Somerville. He
grew up watching horror movies at his father's movie theater and got
the idea to imitate Boris Karloff, which inspired him to write Monster
Mash.

 My mom dated Bobby "Boris" Pickett when she was younger.


My favorite Halloween memory was that apartment building on the corner
of Park and College next to the library. It was all elderly people and
they used to come down into the lobby where they had a table set up.
They gave us doughnuts and real apple cider. Sometimes if you had a
really good costume-they would ask you to go upstairs to show someone
who could not make it down to the lobby – can you image anything like
that today? We also used the "go home, dump and run policy" to re-fill
our bags. The Woodbridge Inn (formerly on College Ave where Ciampa
manor is now) also gave donuts and cider.

 There was an elderly
couple somewhere in our neighborhood (Francesca and College Ave area),
they made the taffy themselves and when they ran out they would
apologize and offer you either some homemade cookies or a quarter.

 You guys lived in the rich neighborhood. We only got pennies.


The old days are alive and well in my neighborhood (Lexington Ave)…we
have so many Trick or Treaters we can barely keep up with them. We've
counted as many as 200! I agree with everyone's memories above about
hitting as many streets as you could and filling pillow cases with
candy. We always had home-made costumes, none of these plastic things
with a big picture on the front of the box of who you were supposed to
be! In my neighborhood, all of the kids visited the drugstore on Summer
between Belmont and Lowell (I'll get back to you with the name I'm
drawing a blank). The owner gave out candy, but also took a picture of
every group of kids who came in. Then after Halloween, he hung all of
the pictures in the store. It was so much fun to go up and look at all
of the pictures and find yourself in one of them!

 One grown up
trick or treater recalled: "Some of the things we did on Halloween (as
kids) could still get us jail time today! Thank God we could run fast
in those days!"

 Halloween back then was GREAT! My Dad would
dress us up in his clothes. Sometimes we would be hobos and my brother
was even a bride one year! We would fill up our pillow cases a few
times. We would go to every house and every street we could think of,
and when we got to the houses you would have to wait on the sidewalk
because there were so many kids packed on the porches. We would go
home, where my parents would check and make sure the candy was okay,
then my sister and brothers would trade candy! My mother would put the
candy in our empty costume boxes write our names on them and we'd have
candy for months! I miss those days!

Thanks to all my Somerville
friends for sharing their Halloween memories. Now hit the streets, and
remember to be careful. There are always those idiots who drive too
fast on Halloween. A word to the wise: Slow down. I may have a
pocketful of grade A's!

Don't forget to check out the Post
Meridian Radio Players presentation of The Big Broadcast of 1938 – a
Halloween spectacular at the Somerville Theatre. The production will
feature a comedy: "The Frank Cyrano Byfar Hour" that's billed as "a
lost classic from Boston radio history." There will also be a
presentation of the Orson Welles classic, "The War of the Worlds,"
rewritten so the action is set in Boston. Watch for my small role as
Massachusetts Governor Hurley. The performances, with live orchestra
and awesome sound effects, will run October 29-31 at 8:00pm with a
special 2:00pm matinée on the 31st. Tickets are available online at
http://bb1938.com/tickets_info.html. You can email Jimmy directly at
jimmydel@rcn.com.