1953. From Jean Bredin’s family album: Washington Heights NYC.
“Halloween in Washington Heights was always fun.
We never left the building, knocking on everyone’s door asking, “Anything for Halloween?”
“You got a couple of pennies and if you were lucky, you got a nickel. Nobody gave out candy.
This is one of my treasured photographs, I was 12 and I am standing in the back row with the mask. My mother made the costume. I was a Dutch Girl.”
Editor’s note: So Jean, when Jack took you on a date when you were 12, did you go Dutch? That group in the photo looks like a lot of fun—no political correctness, and all the costumes home-made.
Was the guy with the top hat supposed to be Bojangles? And the laughing guy or girl in the back, to the left with the blond hair—was that Donald Trump? And the ghost with the knees was a girl, right? At that age girls were always trying to haunt my mind. —–PG
NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND:
Does anyone remember “Rag-A-Muffins” on Thanksgiving Day? This is when we went begging for pennies and apples, at least in Jersey City on Thanksgiving Day during the 50s.