Remembering "Heshie"- The Halloween Caper

It was a dark and stormy night...

October 29, 1971. This was my last chance and I was looking forward to a big payoff. Halloween was the perfect time to blend in with the trick or treaters. Unfortunately this simple plan was already in jeopardy. This year Halloween fell on a Sunday, but some places planned to celebrate with trick or treating on Friday night, others on Saturday night. If I was lucky this would double my chance for a big score, but if I got the date wrong...oh well, I'd lose my chance and go out with a fizzle instead of a bang.

My two accomplices were ready. Their metamorphis complete, no chance anyone would recognize either one of them. Good. Now to sneak into town without being noticed.

We climbed into the car. The dark moonless night was perfect for our deed. As we got closer to town the streetlights backlit the dark, leafless autumn branches swaying in the breeze. The windshield wipers beat back and forth sweeping the raindrops off the windshield and mimicking the rythmic pounding of three hearts anticipating how successful our carefully laid plans would be.  A traffic light turned from yellow to red forcing the car to stop at the bottom of the street. There was no one on the sidewalks leading to the house where we were headed. Not sure how this would play out, we forged on, committed to our plan. The car pulled into the familiar driveway. We had been here many times before, but tonight was a little different.

The porch light was off, and we arranged ourselves carefully so that when the door opened, the light from the hall would light us up and let them know we meant business.

Ding-Dong. The doorbell summoned the occupants and we could hear footsteps cautiously approaching, obviously not expecting visitors. Good, we had surprise on our side.

Suddenly the overhead porch light snapped on blinding us as the door eased open and a face peered at us inquisitively.

TRICK OR TREAT we yelled in unison as our grandmother's confused face broke into its usual friendly smile now that she recognized her grandchildren. 

"Halloween is not until tomorrow" she said, inviting us in and admiring our costumes. 

Mom joined us from the car as Ami admired our costumes and said something witty about each one. Our Grandfather, "Grossi",  barely stirred from behind the paper and grunted a greeting at the three children interrupting his evening.

She offered us a treat and taking advantage of our "rights" as grandchildren we each helped ourselves to a big handful. 

We kind of knew that Middletown may not be trick or treating until tomorrow, so our visions of visiting the neighbors on Monhagan avenue were simply not going to happen.

"Why don't you go over and see Heshie ", asked Ami, meaning her sister who lived across the street. "She would love to see you", she assurred us.

A prim and proper Elsie Kroll Circa 1991

Giggling with anticipation at "tricking" Heshie in our costumes we crossed the darkened street and climbed the stairs to Heshie's house, sitting on a small knoll overlooking Monhagen Avenue. We once again arranged ourselves on the porch, shushing each other with whispered giggles and anticipating her surprised reaction. Unlike her sister, Heshie was a little stern and didn't always shower us with the unconditional love that our grandmother, Ami, did. She was always kind to us and we always got a dollar bill in our birthday card from her, but whenever we visited her we could count on being escorted out when she had gotten her fill of us, which was just long enough to be hospitable to a bunch of rambunctous little boys. She wasn't mean. but firm, and being a mid-aged spinster, she put strict boundaries on just how much we would disrupt her carefully ordered lifestyle.

Heshie's house, 112 Monhagan Ave

We settled ourselves on the darkened porch, and reached out to ring the door bell.  Ding-Dong. Footsteps. Porch light. 

Heshies face pressed against the glass as she pulled the lacy curtain aside. With knitted brow she scrutinized the three faces one by one, not recognizing any of us in our costumes. We smiled knowingly. We had fooled her. To our surprise,  the curtain fell back in place and the light went off. Heshie was not one to waste time on unexpected and unwelcome hooligans gathered on her porch. 

We sprang forward and rang the doorbell repeatedly, yelling: "Heshie, it's us!" but to no avail. 

She completely ignored the racket hoping it would go away, which we finally did. We were more disappointed not to share our clever costumes with her than not getting a few of the good treats she was sure to be handing out to strangers the next night. Oh the indignity of it all!

We slumped back to Ami's and reported our experience which gave Ami and Mom a good laugh. We felt like victims and wanted them to call Heshie, but the moment had passed and we loaded ourselves into the car for the trip home. Tomorrow would be another day, although at thirteen going on fourteen I was already stretching things, next year I'd be starting High School and leaving these childish traditions behind.

We didn't get any candy that night, but we had added a good "Heshie" story to our memory. That night we tricked Heshie and she tricked us!