The first several years my husband Dave and I were married, he was a bus driver for the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority in Boston. He had two children who lived with their mother in Halifax and I had two children from my first marriage. My son Brian and Dave’s daughter, Donna were both 12 and in the same class together in the Halifax School system. Dave’s son Davey was 9 and also went to school in Halifax. My daughter Heidi was also nine and went to the Reads Collaborative program for deaf students in Taunton.
Halloween was fast approaching, and the kids were trying to decide what costumes to wear so they could go Trick-or-Treating. Davey wanted to dress up as a bus driver like his dad. Dave was pleased about that and told him he’d let him use one of his shirts and his hat. Heidi went rummaging through one of my closets, pulling out a costume that a friend of mine had given me when her daughter outgrew it. Heidi declared that it now fit her and could she wear it. I had forgotten all about it and laughed when I saw it and told her, yes, she could have it. Brian chose a robot he idolized. Donna loved fashion and put together what I thought was a very original and colorful costume. Heidi came to me asking what sounds a chicken made. I told her they cackle. I wrote down the word so she could see it and then put her palm on my throat so she could feel the sound when I gave my best cackle. We were both laughing and I told her to try it. She did better than I did, nice and loud. I told her that was perfect! She practiced for a few days wearing the costume until I told her she needed to take it off and hang it up so nothing would happen to it. It was white in the front, made out of fluffy material and yellow across the shoulders with a yellow wig made out of yarn for her head. The wattles, which are the fleshy flaps hanging beneath a chickens beak near the throat are what the red things are.
Halloween finally came. Dave got home early. After we ate, Dave was helping Davey, I was helping Heidi, Brian was putting aluminum foil on his robot costume and Donna was putting on makeup to go with her costume. The bus drivers that drove for the MBTA all wore long-sleeved, light-colored blue cotton shirts, dark-colored pants, and a darker blue hat with a black vinyl visor. Dave’s shirt was so big on Davey, he rolled up some sheets to tuck under the shirt and put a belt around them that he cut to Davey’s size so the sheets wouldn’t fall out. He did the belt up and then buttoned the shirt all the way up. Davey laughed and said that now he had a stomach like his dad. Dave put the hat on Davey and that was big as well. He put some dish towels under the hat to stuff it so it wouldn’t fall off and out we went. We left a big bowl of candy on our step and I put up a large note that read: One bag only please, think of others.
The night weather was fairly warm and the moon lit our way as we walked through the neighborhood, passing by friends and neighbors and enjoying all the costumes. Dave stayed pretty close to Davey as he was somewhat worried he may tumble with all the heavy clothes he had on underneath what he was wearing. I was with Heidi as she ran from yard to yard cackling as loud as she could, stopping only when she went to the door for candy. Dave and I kept watch behind us where Donna and Brian were. Brian kept losing pieces of aluminum foil off his costume as he passed by some fences, and Donna’s costume was catching on fence posts as well. Neither one of them looked too happy and as we turned a corner to go carefully down a small hill, they both called out to us that they were going back to the house because they were bored. We gave our okay.
As we walked down a slight slope that led to the small private part of Halifax beach where the moon cast its Halloween magic across the pond, I heard tree branches snap and Dave yelled out to Davey. Heidi ran cackling into another yard and I looked over to see Dave running for Davey as he tumbled down the incline like a little blue ball all curled up and laughing. Dave was leaping towards him. When Heidi looked around for me, I waved to her to come to me. People were walking towards us to see if everything was okay. There, on the beach sand lay Davey, laughing. He was trying to talk but he couldn’t stop laughing. Dave was now laughing and shaking his head as now there were about 15 people standing around Davey on the ground. Dave leaned down to check Davey to make sure he wasn’t injured and then lifted him up in his arms, asking him what happened. Davey repressed his laughter long enough to tell us that he tripped over some tree branches and went head first onto the side of the street but he didn’t get hurt because the hat and visor protected him and stayed on while he rolled down the hill to the beach.
It was a Halloween to remember. Neighbors were checking with us to make sure Davey was alright for at least a week or two after Halloween was over. For the next month, no matter where I went in town, people were coming up to me asking where I got Heidi’s Halloween costume, they’d like to get one for their daughter or granddaughter. Some asked me where did she learn how to cackle. Heidi also played town sports such as soccer and softball and her coaches praised how good she was doing.
Happy Halloween!