This piece is a sequel to Halloween 1964.. If you haven't read it,check out
http://rootswriterdaviddaniels.blogspot.com/2011/10/halloween-1964.html
Part One
In my youth,kids didn't settle disputes with guns,but rather with their fists. Afterschool fights were quite the event at C.A. Barbour School in Hartford Connecticut in my elementary school days.
First there would be the incident. Then there would be the agreement as to where to fight. Cleveland Ave? Garden St? Tower Avenue? Muhammad Ali's influence on the youth was clearly seen as each fighter would say that the other person was in for it no matter what street it was to be fought on. When teachers weren't paying attention, the trash talk banter would go on in the classroom and sometimes in the hallways things would nearly break out,but in most cases,soon as the bell rang releasing the kids from the teacher,the combatants along with half the classroom would run towards the site of the rumble.
My mom was an educational activist who later became a teacher and ended up teaching at C.A. Barbour School,our neighborhood school where the Daniels brothers attended. Even before she returned to the classroom,if she saw the telltale signs of a fight brewing (kids running at breakneck speed,or lots of yelling) she would not be afraid to get into the middle of the dispute to break it up.
If she knew the parents of the kids fighting,she'd often take it upon herself to take the child to the parents house,and failing that,she had lots of phone numbers.
While this may have been good for fight prevention,this never set well within the classroom and the Daniels brothers would often be at the receiving end of that resentment.
One year,on the day of Halloween,rumors were rampant that there would be "tricks" in the neighborhood as well as treats. My brothers and I took this as a warning and tried to convey our concern to Mom. For my mom,education was a passion,and it never once occurred to her that anyone would take offense to her actions to keep the focus on learning.
We encouraged her to not park her car on the street. We had a garage,but it was more often used as a storage area and required some rearranging in order to park the car there. My mom did have to be impressed that my brothers and I were willing to rearrange the garage however,the car remained parked on the street in front of our house.
Halloween night seemed to go as normal for Halloween..younger kids out early and the older ones later..and THEN IT HAPPENED! Simultaneously as our house was being pelted by eggs,one could hear the windshield as well as every window of my mom's car being smashed.
Mom got the car fixed,and I did harp on her about not listening to my brothers and I.
The worst part of it all however was witnessing my mom's illusions shattered.
Part Two
Now Mom's car was parked in our garage but she began delegating more of the job of distributing Halloween candy to me.
Halloween 1964 shaped my view on Halloween and the attack on our house later did little to change that view. Beginning in the fall of 1967,and through the spring of 1968,I had spent many a weekend as a volunteer in Sen. Eugene McCarthy's bid for the Presidency. As a seventh grader too young to vote,I was left primarily to stuff envelopes and leaflet. Because the center of McCarthy's campaign was opposition to the War in Vietnam,everyone involved in that campaign was well schooled as to the evils of that war. McCarthy didn't win the nomination,and in the fall of 1968,the choices for President were Democrat Hubert Humphrey,Republican Richard Nixon and Independent George Wallace,all in favor to some degree or another of the war.
I felt somehow like I had to do something to make folks aware of this travesty. I persuaded a sixth grade classmate of mine,William Naylor to agree to become a write in candidate for President. I became his Vice Presidential running mate. The next important job was to get the word out. I used Mom's typewriter to type out Naylor-Daniels leaflets complete with our platform. For added emphasis,I would staple to our leaflets old flyers from the McCarthy campaign along with new anti war flyers I had obtained from the Hartford office of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
I volunteered to distribute all the candy on Halloween of 1968. My mom obliged. Little did she know I had a plan. Younger kids were to get candy and a flyer,older kids were to receive only a Naylor-Daniels flyer. This served two purposes.One to get the word out about our write in candidacy,and Two,Mom had bought some good candy that I felt was better served in my own stomach as opposed to some other kids'
I got lots of strange looks from parents escorting their kids as well as kids themselves,but I felt this was the best way to engage.
All was well as the evening was winding down,and I had just shut the door when..SMASH SMASH SMASH It was the sound of our house windows being smashed.
My mom was dumbfounded as to why this would happen again. I did take some heat for distributing flyers instead of candy.
All I knew was that I was finished with Halloween.
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