Under 40’s Halloween Evening

 ... a splendid variation of dunking for apples ....

I had studied the Bow Valley Ward bulletin for a number of weeks.

There was an announcement of a Halloween Party 5 pm, Monday, Oct 29th, for those under 40, with or without children, pot luck, games, fun.

I told Richard this was the party for his children.

Alice has been talking about being Princess Leia.

Betty wanted to be a pirate.

Miranda has been working on a costume for Michael for a few days, complete with a two-sided tails and spikes in travel from the top of his forehead, over the back of his head and down to the nap of his neck.

 She pulled out all of the stops on her design skills, ones that are combined with the sewing talent to actually make the product.

The one eyed dragon, Princess Leia and Little Red Riding Hood

I saw the ironing board out for a couple of days, black fabric triangles turned into dragon spikes and curved lines into a perfectly fitting hood for Michael.

When we got close to the church I began to wonder if the party had been cancelled.

Betty testing out the magic in Nathaniel Berg's hand

So did Richard.

We looked at each other, silent but questioningly.

One lone woman was taking a bag out of a car and I couldn’t tell if she was a left over volunteer from Wheels on Meals, or if she was the only other person who thought there would be a party.

She opened the door. We entered the cultural hall.

... whirling bowling pins ...

"You mean the weight is up here?"

There were long black strings hanging from the basketball hoop, black and orange balloons and streams along the side of the stage, a buffet table set up and game stations.

Richard’s 3 children presented nearly half of the under 8 population.

Sumin and Sumarga were there as well.

That makes four children.

Joining the 3 Johnsons was 3 year old Peter Murray, two year old Nolan Hinman and 18 month old Adria Lewington.

The rest of the party-goers were adults whose chief joy was sitting at round tables chatting and eating.

"Betty thinks she is juggling ..."

I spent some of my time trying to get acquainted with the rest of the under-40 crowd, suddenly realizing that even the under 60 crowd would have looked young to me.

I didn’t know the names of anyone, so I grabbed my pen and pencil and got to work introducing myself.

 In one group of young marrieds,I asked the women if they had their husband’s name or were carrying their maiden names. I was just trying to learn the first and last names of both parts of the couples.

I was surprised to learn that to some of them the difference between those who had their husbands names and those who carried their own family names was the difference between the words feminine and feminist.

That was probably my most important learning at the Halloween party.

For other fun and games, there was a nerf gun station, a bounce-the-ball-into-a-cup station, and a donut eating station, the donuts hanging from the long black threads that I had initially seen hanging from the top of the basketball hoop.

"I will eat one of the brownies now."

The chief joy of the under 3 crowd was just to run around in the cultural hall and make noise.

Teams were organized as the evening went on – you could choose anyone to be on your team and then all were tasked with finding pictures of Halloween figures that were hidden under tables, on walls by fire extinguishers or up on the stage, which is usually an off-limits play zone.

No one wants their child falling off of the stage.

The teams were made up of the families of all of this under 8 crowd.

Nobody else in the room wants to run around looking for pictures on a wall. So off we went to find cats, cauldrons, witches, dragons and to check them off of our list.

... Michael displaying the full magnificence of his costume ...

The best part of this activity was the strategy of the adults who were usually leading a group of one or more child.

They kept one eye out on other groups who were finding images, and then rushing over to that spot to check off the image off on their own checklist.

There was also a “suck-jello-up-througha straw” contest.

The mood felt somewhat like being at a cocktail party.

People standing, eating, people sitting, eating, and then Gilbert Lybert pulled out an orange yo-you and began playing with it, performing Sleeper, Elevator and Walk the Dog, Shockwave.

 Soon he was throwing the yo yo under his leg and behind his back.

I wondered if part of his youth had been spent in a teen-age yo-yo career, but he assured me this was just a hobby.

Before I describe the next event, I would like to say that I noticed Nathaniel Berg, partly because of how he was dress: mismatching socks, a horrible plaid shirt, knickers, just above his knees, and suspenders.

... chips in a black cat dish ...

I think he wore a bandana as well. During part of the evening he took time to talk to all of the children, whom, I might remind you, have about the average age of 4.

 I saw him run towards one, then slide on his knees up to the child so that when he reached him, the 2 of them were at the same height.

 They had a small conversation and then off Nathaniel went.

Just one of those moments when a lot is happening everywhere, but I see something that is a little odd.

Well, at this point in the evening, Nathaniel took over from the yo-yo expert, asking the older children if they had ever seen anyone juggle apples.

... steadying a donut ...

He then did the funny apple juggling trick with just two apples.

Soon he added a third, though, and then began to eat one of them while juggling all three, ending up with having eaten all of one apple and just the other two still in his hand.

It wasn’t only me who was mesmerized.

Now he had the attention of everyone at the party.

 When he said he wished he had brought his knives into the hall, his wife said, “I will run to the car and get them.”

... look at the hands on that dragon ....

But she brought in bowling pins, which he then began to juggle under his legs and around his back, ending with giving them to the children and showing them how they are weighted at the top of the pin and not at the bottom as one might expect.

He allowed Betty to try one. She stood on the edge of the stage for about 5 minutes, just holding the one pin in her hand, as he had shown her.

Then his knives appeared out of nowhere and the bowling pins were forgotten as he banged the blades together, scrapped them really, in pirate fashion as though he were sharpening them.

And then they began to fly through the air.

By this time I was cheering and waving my hands.

... examining the full sweep of the donut 
hanging from the basketball hoop ...

What Mormon ward has their very own busker!

I got to see him working his crowd of  youngsters long before he started busking.

In retrospect, that was the best part of the party!

Arta