Halloween Memories

Okay…it’s that time of year—ghost and goblins, Frankenstein, floozies and toilet paper. Oh, the Halloween memories.

My parents didn’t have a lot of money, so our costumes were mostly homemade. And by that I mean, fifteen minutes before we left with our pillowcases in hand to collect our candy, Mom would get creative. I remember once being a mummy. The toilet paper fell off after the first few houses, but no problem, my mom brought a couple of extra rolls and every few houses, she would roll me up again. That worked until it started raining.

One year, I was an angel, wings and halo made out of aluminum foil and a coat hanger. No surprise that I lost my halo pretty quickly.

Then there was the year mom was obviously low on creative juices, because she teased my hair, and slapped some makeup on my face and announced I was ready.

“What am I?” I asked her.

I remember her hesitating before answering. “A floozy.”

I didn’t even know what a floozy was, but I was proud of being one and to my six-year-old mind, I looked like an adult . . . just like mom. So that’s what I told everyone that night. “I’m a floozy just like my mom.”

Amazingly, the next year, I got one of those costumes from the store.

Mom and sometimes dad would follow us in their car as we knocked on the door of every house in the neighborhood. When we got home, we always had to empty our stash on the table for dad to inspect it for poison or razor blades. I was always impressed with his talent. He’d study it carefully and pick the suspicious pieces out. Funny thing, it was always his favorite type of candy that looked suspicious.

I quickly outgrew trick-or-treating, or I should say, I traded it in for rolling yards. I know some of you are going to argue that it’s called T-P’ing or toilet papering yards, but in Alabama, we “rolled” yards. We rolled cars. If someone stood still long enough we’d roll them too—making them instant mommies.

As I’m writing this, I suddenly got curious. Where did this tradition come from? (Probably the toilet paper industry, right?) So I did a far-reaching research on it. Yeah, I googled it.

Much to my dismay, no one really knows who was the first person to come up with the brilliant idea of tossing toilet paper up in trees. Tis’ a sad fact that some history has been lost to us. Then again, you’ve gotta admit, that had to be one weird dude.

Anyway, while I came up dry on the tradition of rolling yards, I did find some interesting trivia on toilet paper. Hey, you never know when you might need this info.

The first person ever to use toilet paper was the Emperor of China in 1391. Definitely a man born before his time. In 1857, Joseph C. Gayetty produced America's first packaged toilet paper. I personally think he deserves to have his face on a coin. In 1890, Scott introduces toilet paper on a roll, which in my mind is just one step up from the invention of the wheel. And in 1942 . . . all hail two-ply! But it wasn’t until 1955 that toilet paper was PC enough to run an ad on television.

Can you believe that? Especially when now you can’t watch TV without hearing about yeast infections, penile dysfunction, and who doesn’t know what do if an erection lasts longer than four hours?

Ahh, things have changed. Even Halloween. Sure, I bought some candy, and I’ll have it waiting by the door, I might even dress up as a floozy, but chances are I’ll only get one or two lone trick or treaters.

Anyway, do you have any Halloween stories to share? Does anyone know where the tradition of rolling yards came from? Or what was your favorite costume? The contest is still up and running. Post a comment and maybe you’ll be the lucky winner.

Happy Halloween!
Crime Scene Christie