By MIKE FRAZIER
correspondent@centrecountygazette.com
CENTRE HALL — All Hallows’ Eve, or Halloween as I remember it, was an evening when my younger siblings would dress up in costumes and visit friends and neighbors expecting some candy or treat to be given them at each home.
“Trick or treating” was beneath us older, wiser and more “rambunctious teens” and we found other activities to take up our time. We would meet up with our friends and “trick” the neighbors. We would ring their doorbells and run away, or we would throw shelled corn at their windows. We might stand in a small group on either side of the main street and when a car came by we would mime that we were stretching a rope across the street, causing the driver of the car to hit the brakes, and then we would scatter.
Most of the time, though, we would just rub soap on the windows of our neighbors’ homes.
My father would lay down the law that if I was out applying soap to other people’s windows, then the day after Halloween I had to wash our windows to make up for my part of the “tricks.” To make sure that I would not have a hard time cleaning our windows, I would soap them with soft soap that then would be easy to wash off the next day.
My, how things have changed. Many of the communities in the valley now sponsor “Trunk or Treat” on the night designated as “trick-or-treat” night. Gregg Township held its night on Oct. 29, and Centre Hall held its event the next Monday night.
The three churches in Centre Hall take turns each year hosting the night, and the fire company brought two trucks to provide the lighting and traffic control to block off the street. Centre Hall Borough provided the hot dogs and buns.
The hosting church provided candy to give to the children and teens who were dressed up. Families with costumed children came and were given a hot dog, if they wanted one, and some candy for their Halloween stash.
Gregg Township held their night in the gym of the Old Gregg School and Community Center. Several local businesses provided candy or goodies. Each business had a table staffed by someone from their business or a volunteer to hand out the candy or food. The township provided the hot dogs and buns.
As often happens with these type of community gatherings, many of the parents would greet neighbors while their kids munched on the hot dogs or candy and caught up with their friends.
