Yesterday was Halloween, a day I remember as the birthday of my Father in 1895. He was a wise man, wiser than a smart phone. I never went after trick or treats. I don’t know if children in our rural community did such things to their neighbors. No one ever came to our house. Perhaps they knew we were Mennonites who didn’t go such things. I do know that in front of our school house was a well with a well used pump. On the morning following Halloween we always found the pump handle tightly wired to the pump so it could not be used .
This well was our only source of water for the eighty some students taught by four teachers in a four room school.. Each student carried a personal collapsible tin cup designed to keep us from communicating germs, I suppose. It was probably not as modern as the one on the left that can be purchased today for fifteen dollars.
I was with My Joy on Halloween eve. She had prepared by making chocolate cookies as a treat for the two little children that appeared regularly each year. She was uncertain. Maybe they would be too old for such a childish thing, or on the other hand they may be too young to brave the cold and rain on this particular night. But they pleased her by coming in costumes. One was a flower and the other a butterfly.
Enlightened parents obviously do not want their children to be witches, ghouls or goblins. I liked the flower and butterfly as soon as I saw them. Rachel and Eldon also reported tricksters with costumes as a snowball, horse and unicorn. Were these benign costumes an omen of the day when everyone has s heart like the heart of Jesus that renews minds so they are able to choose the way of peace without fear?
