HALLOWEEN HOOLIGANS

My mother was born in 1896. She, her older sister and their parents lived in West Brattleboro, Vt. Also living there, just two houses down from theirs, was my Grandmother’s sister, my great Aunt Emma.

Aunt Emma was the epitome of the frugal New Englander. She lived a very simple life and every expenditure, no matter how small, was carefully itemized in her diary. Her life was spartan to say the least.

However Aunt Emma had one passion. She had lovingly planted and cared for the award winning rose bushes that took up most of her small front lawn. People came from near and far to see them.  

As you can imagine Aunt Emma was the perfect target for a bunch of rowdy boys on Halloween night. The story goes that the morning after Halloween Aunt Emma walked out front to find that her beloved rose bushes had been completely smothered in toilet paper.

Was Aunt Emma angry? That was probably her first reaction but then her frugality took over. She got a wooden dowel and preceded to wind the paper around it. The boys had used at least three rolls to cover her foliage so she had a huge ball when she was done…enough to last a long time and it was FREE!

I’m sure this wasn’t the result that the little Halloween Hooligans were looking for but it must have made the day for Aunt Emma.