Chapter 1 Continued...page 2

Every year, grandma and grandpa would decorate their big old barn for a night of Halloween fun.

I loved the barn parties that my grandpa and grandma threw for all of us kids at Halloween. The neighbors all brought their kids to the parties  to join in the fun. Grandpa would decorate the big old barn with dried corn stalks, pumpkins, fake spider webs, goblins, and lots of ghosts made out of old sheets. He always put two big barrels of  ripe, red, apples floating in water just inside the barn door at Halloween for the party. We each had to go "bobbing" for them if we wanted  one to eat. There was always lots of fresh-squeezed apple cider and popcorn to go around. Grandma would make salt-water- taffy for us to pull and wrap for treats. I loved to lick the buttery sweet stuff from my fingers.

The barn floor was covered  with straw mixed in a rainbow of autumn colors; Red, scarlet, gold, and yellow leaves, that grandpa had raked up that morning. They would "crunch" and "crackle" when you stepped on them and swirled around your feet if you kicked at them. Two over-stuffed scarecrows leaned against the posts that held up the hayloft overhead. Their arms and legs dangled like broken branches against their sides, and straw stuck out of the buttoned up shirt fronts. Corn stalks stuck out or their arms, legs, and necks.  Each one had on an old hat, and had painted faces with buttons for eyes.

An old black crow sat on the shoulder of one of the three scarecrows.  Grandpa had saved the bird from a horrible death when he had found it tangled and caught in a barbwire fence. Grandpa named him "Squint", because he'd lost one eye to a piece of that old barbwire.  A single, yellow, beady eye, was now giving me the once-over, as old "Squint" cocked his black head from side to side trying to get a better look at me.  Since Grandpa had saved old Squint's life, he's been hanging around the farm as part of the family ever since. Yep,  It was a perfect setting for the night ahead. Halloween Night...All Hollow's Eve!

  Boy...are we going to have fun!  Click on Old "Squint" to continue...

 by Samantha Storey  © 2002 All Rights Reserved