Five young boys engage in the traditional Halloween mischievousness. All
goes well until one of the boys magically disappears, and then reappears in
a state quite distressing to all.
The Story: Monroe is a small town of about 5000 people, nestled in the
rolling farmland about halfway between Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio. In
1957, it was little more than a village, with a population of around 1500.
In Monroe, you didn’t go “downtown,” you went “uptown.” There was only
one traffic light. It marked the center of town at the top of the hill. State
route 25, known locally as the Cincinnati-Dayton road, ran north to south
through that light, and state route 63 ran east to west, Lebanon and the
famous Golden Lamb Inn and Restaurant about 10 miles to the east and
more farmland to the west.
The four corners of that intersection pretty much defined the town. On one
corner was the local barbershop. Across the street were the bank and post
office. The other two corners were occupied by Marshall’s drug store and
soda fountain, and Stump and Squirrely Highshue’s auto repair and gas
station.
Less than a mile east of town, just off of route 63, were two roads, cul-desacs,
really, where lived the members of the “gang of five;” five 10 and 11-
year old boys who managed to fill every available waking hour with
adventures of every imaginable nature. Steve, Billy, and Ricky lived on
Conova Drive. Bobby and Danny lived across a pasture on that other
road… Timrick Place. Besides that empty pasture, where many a game of
baseball was contested, there was a rundown apple orchard, where the
boys fashioned a makeshift clubhouse. Many a summer night was spent in
that orchard, eating crab apples (or throwing them at each other), telling
ghost stories, and spending the night in their sleeping bags, where little
sleep actually took place.
They were good kids and managed to stay mostly out of trouble. But boys
will be boys, especially around the end of October. You see, in Monroe, on
Halloween, there were “Trick-or-treaters,” kids interested in gathering
enough candy to last them at least until Easter, and there were
“Halloweeners,” who were hell-bent on mischief. The gang of five fell into
the latter category. Oh, they stopped for the occasional Clark Bar or bag of
M&Ms, but mayhem was their focus.
Come Halloween night, they would arm themselves with bars of soap, bags
of field corn, and rolls of toilet paper, and head out to celebrate the
occasion. The soap was used to deface a residence’s windows; the corn
would be thrown at homes in the hopes of frightening its occupants; and
the toilet paper provided wonderful decoration for the trees in the yard…the
taller the better.
Most recipients of the Halloweeners‘ efforts accepted the mess with relative
good humor. There was, however, old man Atkinson, whose good humor
had apparently abandoned him at around the turn of the century! In fact,
when Halloween arrived, he would, at the slightest provocation, burst
through his back door and fire his World War II M-1 rifle in the air in the
hopes of scaring off his tormentors. Needless to say, he was the favorite
target of the gang of five.
On Halloween night, 1957, the boys descended on old man Atkinson’s back
yard. Bobby had his own agenda and quickly separated from the rest. The
back porch of the Atkinson residence was adorned with a wooden pergola,
and Bobby was mounting it with a bag of flour, which he intended to pour
on Atkinson’s head when the old geezer appeared on the back porch. He
laid out across the pergola’s rafters… and waited.
Billy and Ricky began peppering the house with corn, while Danny and
Steve smeared the windows with soap. Suddenly, the back door flew open,
and there stood old man Atkinson, rifle at the ready. He hollered some
expletives in the boys’ direction, and then he raised the gun and fired it into
the air. They all took off and headed for the clubhouse.
Once safe in the confines of the apple orchard, they caught their collective
breaths and began to sort through the candy they had collected. They
reveled in their accomplishments, and then, suddenly, they realized that
Bobby wasn’t with them. Did he get caught? They were worried, but they
were too scared to go back and find out. They packed up their loot and
headed to their respective homes. Bobby would have a great tale to tell
them tomorrow.
But for Bobby, there was no tomorrow. Old man Atkinson’s innocent shot in
the air was not so innocent after all. You see, the old man shot straight
up…straight through that bag of flour and straight into Bobby’s head. The
old man didn’t realize what had happened until he was deluged with that
white, powdery substance, some of it sporting a reddish tint.
I don’t like Halloween very much anymore.
What you receive:
- Five cards depicting the five boys, one of which is shimmed
- A sixth thin card that matches one of the five except for it being splattered
with blood and white flour
- A special close-up mat (produced by Pattrick Przysiecki of Patt’s Mats)
with a seventh card, the back of which matches the pattern on the close-up
mat
-A topless wooden box with a magnet imbedded in the bottom
- A small magnet, not involved in the performance of the trick, to extract the
shimmed card from the box in order to reset for your next performance.
-Written instructions on parchment-like paper, complete with suggested
patter.