Edna's Halloween Memories

Edna Hymas Eborn was born on November 8th, 1912 in Liberty Idaho.

The ninety-seventh anniversary of her birth is coming up soon.  I think of her often and sometimes find myself chuckling at the things she told me about her growing up years.  Since Halloween is coming up soon I'll tell you one of the stories she told me about Halloween in Liberty back in the 1920s.  She said of course they did the "Trick or Treat" thing, but there seemed to be more emphasis on the Trick than the Treat.  She said there was an older gentlmen and his wife, I believe the man's name was Freddie Alsop, who lived out along the road in East Liberty.  Like everyone else in town, he had a few cows, which they milked to help sustain their family.  Grandma, then Edna, and a few of her friends decided to play a trick on this  good brother, so they went down to his place in the dark and discovered that Brother Allsop was out in the shed/barn milking his cows.  They found a long willow stick and climbed up on the roof of the building where the cows were being milked.  The roof must have been mostly covered with straw.  I remember her saying how when Brother Allsop would sit down on his one legged stool to milk a cow they would stick the willow down through the roof and poke the cow.The cow would kick.  The milk would be spilled and Brother Alsop would cuss, and they would laugh.  I remember Mother telling me, that after it was all over and she was home, after their night's adventure, she felt ashamed of herself and sorry for poor, old Brother Freddie Alsop, who had never "harmed a fly."  I could tell a few other old-time Halloween pranks that were pulled by Dad and Mom and some of their friends.  I guess it gave me a few ideas for some of my own teenager Halloween shenanigans.  They seemed to use their imagination and find a way to have a good time.  Now, look at these pictures and see if you can imagine our Mother/Grandmother doing what I have discribed.  Doesn't  it bring a smile to your face as well?

All of these pictures were taken of Edna in her late teens and early twenties.  If I remember correctly, I beleive she was twenty-three years old at the time the first two of these pictures were taken. This would have been the year she married dad.   She was good looking.

by Bart