We’ll be celebrating Halloween this Monday and Kathie and I are especially excited about that this year. You see for the past fifteen years Halloween at our house has been extremely boring.

All the neighboring farmsteads and country homes are missing the necessary Halloween participants, children! We buy a small bag of candy each Halloween knowing it will likely go untouched by little munchkins.

We will be forced to eat the Milkyway and Snicker bars ourselves as no children will come to claim them.

But this year is different! Several new families have moved into the neighboring homes. Seven new potential ghosts, witches, super- heroes or Tinker-Bells are probably engaged in costume preparation as I am writing this blog. 🙂

The fifteen- year drought is about to end and for the first time in fifteen years I and Kathie won’t be the ones suffering from a sugar high the day after Halloween. (Although I sure will miss those little Milky Way Bars!)

Now to get everyone in the Trick or Treat mood I’m going to do something a little different. I’m going to share a Halloween story from Volume III of my Children in the Outdoors series.

Our little kindergartener daughter Bonnie will pull a hilarious Halloween trick on all the trick or treat children who visited our home thirty-two years ago.

I hope you enjoy it. 🙂

Shocked in a Shock

The sun was warm, but the brisk north wind signaled another season change. Falling leaves and frosty mornings foretold of the coming winter.

“Bonnie, if you don’t tie the bundles tighter our corn shock is going to have the ‘sags’,” said sister Jill.

“And a saggy corn shock will not frighten the trick or treat kids that come this Halloween,” added Steve.

“We could hang Steve’s school picture on the shock,” grinned Bonnie. “That would frighten almost anyone!”

“It might even make the shock nervous!” giggled Jill.

“Those comments were not funny!” replied Steve.

“Who invented shocks anyway?” asked Bonnie.

“Before the combine was invented farmers needed to bring the grain to the threshing site,” replied Steve.

“So, they cut the grain and tied it in bundles,” added Jill.

“The bundles were picked up and stacked together in clusters called shocks,” continued Steve.

“Grandpa said the shocks made a field look like it was covered with hundreds of golden tepees,” said Jill.

“Harvest time must have been fun back then,” added Steve. “Grandpa said all the farmers got together and helped each other thresh their grain.”

“This group effort was called a ‘threshing bee’,” added Jill.

“And Bonnie in no way is a threshing bee related to a honey-bee,” grinned Steve.

“I know that!” sputtered Bonnie and she picked up a corn stalk and proceeded to chase her brother around the yard.

Several weeks passed and the evening of Halloween arrived.

As the family prepared for the arrival of the first ‘trick or treaters’ Bonnie cried, ” I have an idea! I’ll take a flashlight and hide inside the shock. I’ll scare the ‘trick or treat’ kids when they walk up to the house.”

“You would fit perfectly inside the shock,” added Jill.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t be afraid out in the dark all by yourself?” asked Mom.

“No way!” cried Bonnie. “Oh, please it would be such fun!”

Finally, it was settled that Bonnie could hide in the shock and Steve and Jill proceeded to help her get organized among the tangle of stalks and wide, brittle leaves.

“That should do it,” said Steve. “How do you feel in there Bonnie?”

“I feel good,” replied Bonnie. “I can see out between the stalks and I have enough room to turn around in here.”

“See you little sister,” said Jill. We’re going into the house now.”

Bonnie replied by flashing the flashlight and emitting a series of frightening roars.

The evening in the shock was exciting for Bonnie. The first ‘trick or treaters’ were so scared that they ran and left their bags lying in the middle of the sidewalk.

Bonnie giggled quietly as the costumed children of all sizes jumped and screamed as they saw and heard the ‘haunted’ shock.

“I think it’s time to go in the house,” murmured Bonnie. “This sure has been a fun Halloween night.”

Suddenly Bonnie heard a rustle in the dry leaves next to her head.

“Wh-wh-what’s that?” cried the little girl.

The rustle continued. However, now the sound came from down near the ground.

Bonnie directed the beam of light from the flashlight toward the rustle and said, “Wh-wh-who goes there?”

A ghost like blur ran up a corn stalk and hid behind the husks of a corn ear.

Bonnie gently moved several husks and in the light beam she was able to see long, thin hairs.

“It looks like animal whiskers!” gasped the little girl.

Moving the husks further back Bonnie gasped and cried, “Eyes….big, round, buggy eyes!”

Bonnie didn’t wait to see any more. Instead, she stood, turned and made a dash for the house. However, she forgot that she was surrounded by bundles of corn stalks.

The corn shock exploded as the frightened little girl tripped over a tangle of corn bundles and struggled to reach the safety of the house.

Throwing open the front door the little girl screamed, “There’s an animal in the shock. It has long whiskers and huge eyes!”

“Are you sure it wasn’t a lost ‘trick or treater’?” teased Steve.

“I’m sure!” snapped Bonnie. “Bring the flashlight and I’ll show you.”

As the family approached the shock Jill asked, “What happened? The shock has fallen down and broken apart?”

“Well, I kinda left in a hurry,” mumbled Bonnie sheepishly.

As the family members slowly separated and lifted the bundles Mom said, “”Oh look, here is a nest of leaves and grass on the ground.”

Dad added, “Look at this pile of plum pits and corn kernels.”

“The animal was getting ready to spend the winter in the shock,” commented Steve. “It already has quite a food supply.”

“And there goes the animal,” shouted Bonnie. “And another….and another!”

Three brown animals with long tails scurried across the yard into the darkness.

“They ran so fast you probably didn’t notice but those animals had white feet, white under bellies and white beneath their tails,” added Dad.

“Bonnie shared her shock with three deer mice,” added Mom.

“Steve was correct,” said Dad. “The deer mice formed a group and were preparing to spend the winter under the shock.”

“Well, Bonnie it’s been quite a Halloween night for you,” said Mom.

“What do you have to say about sharing a shock with three deer mice? asked Dad.

Still wide- eyed Bonnie replied, “Oh deer, deer, deer!”

Everyone laughed.

The End

Happy Halloween! 🙂