Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family
history through old photographs.
This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt is timed right for
Halloween. When my two girls were in their peak trick-or-treating years, there
were parties and festivities coming at them faster than you could say, “Boo.” But there was one non-costume and non-candy event
that provided a welcome relief: the
Halloween Story Hour at our local branch library.
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| Halloween Story Hour at Russell Memorial Library October 1988 |
The story hour was just one project of the Junior Woman’s
Club of Portsmouth, of which I was a proud member from 1983 to 1991 when I
reached the maximum age for membership as a JUNIOR. Most of our members were
mothers of young children, so naturally children’s issues were at the heart of
many club projects.
The real draw for most of the children who attended the Story Hour was not the delightful
or spooky stories they would hear but the appearance of our special guests, the
Crime Busters.
The Crime Busters were a group of policemen capitalizing on the popularity of the “Ghost Busters” movie franchise. Not only did they show up in costume, but they also arrived in a fully tricked-out white station wagon like the one from the movie.
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| Crime Busters and volunteers eager to dance |
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| Not Portsmouth's Crime Buster car but similar image from Flickr |
The Crime Busters were a group of policemen capitalizing on the popularity of the “Ghost Busters” movie franchise. Not only did they show up in costume, but they also arrived in a fully tricked-out white station wagon like the one from the movie.
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| Crime Busters t-shirt image courtesy Pam Newsom Matthews |
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| Crime Busters with some of the kids My girls are the 4th from the left (wearing a shirt with a cheerleader bear) and on the far right back. |
These pictures remind me what fun I had in my ol’ JWCP
days. Most of the “young mothers” are now grandmothers. Many of those happy children
eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Crime Busters are now young parents
themselves. Right now they no doubt are pulling together costumes for their
little witches and Elsas, vampires and Batmans.
I wonder if any of these new parents are taking their little ones to a Halloween Story Hour.
I wonder if any of these new parents are taking their little ones to a Halloween Story Hour.
If there’s something strange in your neighborhood, then
follow the links at Sepia Saturday. I ain’t afraid o’ no ghost!
© 2015, Wendy Mathias.
All rights reserved.
How cute! I can imagine what a big hit they were for the young ones :) Did sound like a wonderful organization you were part of until you were "aged" out of it :) It is amazing how time flies too; I bet writing about this brought back so many memories from when your children were young and you were getting ready to celebrate the different holidays with them :)
ReplyDeletebetty
Wonderful story, Wendy! I've been feeling a bit nostalgic the last few days since Halloween isn't such a big deal for us any longer. Even my oldest grandchild is too old for trick-or-treating :-(
ReplyDeleteThat's funny to think you became too old for the group. Did you then progress to the Senior Women's Club? I don't kmow if they have a Halloween story time at our local library but if they do I expect the children would go dressed up. They didn't have anything like it when my children were growing up, except at the Montessori preschool they attended, and no one here had even heard of Halloween when I was a child.
ReplyDeleteHalloween is a big holiday n our town...people all over, mostly adults, dress up and have parties.
ReplyDeleteLove your local police -- good for them! I have to admit I'm missing the days when just little kids went trick-or-treating...now we get trucks and vans that pull up at the end of the street and young adults pile out and run rampant over the neighborhood...but, still, there's always the little ghost straggling up the walkway!
ReplyDeleteSuch fun memories. I am happy to say that my BFF takes her grand-daughter to story time at the library.
ReplyDeleteThis morning I met a Star Wars stormtrooper walking his dog.
ReplyDeleteWhere would Hollywood be without Halloween? (The dog was sensibly dressed.)
Brilliant idea; both the story hour and the police capitalising on Ghostbusters. I haven’t seen the film for years but the song stays with us doesn’t it?
ReplyDeleteI just had to click on the video so I could hear the Ghostbusters theme! I often took my kids to story time at our local library and always enjoyed the programs. No Ghostbuster police officers, though.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteWhat a clever idea. You never know what's going to stick to a child's memory.
ReplyDeleteI would have loved that when i was a child--unless the story was scary!
ReplyDeleteWhat a neat idea, & what a really good thing for those fellows to do for the kids. Fun for all and good lessons learned at the same time!
ReplyDeleteIt's great when the police join in local activities like that.
ReplyDeleteThe parties look like a lot of fun
ReplyDeleteSounds like great fun, Wendy. When I was a child I loved Holloween, even as much as Christmas, except it was a school day.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great fun, but constructive, way to mark Halloween. It was a non- event here when my daughter was growing up, but now much more popular.
ReplyDelete