Throwback Thursday

Halloween will be upon us in just over two weeks. I have my costume ready! Since Halloween is so near and I was looking through some old photographs, I thought I would post the photograph above.

That is me in the green, oriental dress. It was one of my paternal grandmother's dresses. I had eye makeup on to make my eyes seem more Asian. The girl next to me was a friend of one of my sisters. I cannot remember her name but I can remember being impressed by her costume...heck, I'm still impressed by it now. The other person in the photo is my oldest sister. I cannot tell (nor remember) what she was dressed as.

I believe this photo was taken in the early 1970s. We had moved into the new house in 1970. The new house was built on an old farmstead. The old barn and garage were the only buildings left from the farm. I remember my dad burning down the old chicken coop to make way for the new house before construction began.

My sisters, brothers and I loved playing in the old barn. We cleaned up the stalls and played house in them. The hayloft still had some bales of hay in it and we would play in those too. Our mom had been the one to suggest we have a Halloween party in the barn.

We decorated it (see the elbow of the paper skeleton behind me and the orange crepe paper ribbon on the wooden post) and had games like Bobbing for Apples. We had a costume contest and I believe the girl dressed as a man won.

I do not remember the year the old barn burnt down. It was maybe sometime during or after my college days, because I was no longer living at home when it happened. My brothers were burning some trash in a barrel when a spark flew up onto the hand-split shake roof. The fire department was called but the barn could not be saved. My mom had stored an old loom in the barn. She had inherited it from one of her aunts. She was heartbroken over that. In the years before the barn was destroyed, people would venture up our long, curved driveway, knock on the door and ask if they could buy the barn. It was never for sale.

I do remember the dusty, musty smell of the old barn and what fun we had during that Halloween party.