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What to Do When You Are Bored

My first introduction to John Burroughs was at the Redding’s house. I assume that my mother-in-law, Jo made the picture of my father-in-law standing beside a big sunflower that he grew and framed it with this quote:

I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see.

A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.
I go to nature to be soothed and healed and to have my senses put in order.
I remember hearing my father-in-law, Bill Redding say that you have no right to be bored.
A few months ago we had a sweet young friend who was spending her days in a strange city and had to stay inside during the day. Esther, Anya, and I came up with some suggestions for things she might do. These might be appropriate for someone who is confined to home.  There are many things adults and children can pursue when they are bored. If you have access to the great outdoors the possibilities are endless for hours of fun. This list is mainly for inside. I have modified a few of these so that they might be appropriate for all ages.
1. Memorize the ABC verses or other verses of the Bible.
2. Learn to do a plank. If you already know how to do one see if you can do a longer one.
3. Make a bucket list.
4. Do the dishes.
5. Make a lemon cake or lemon mug cake.
6. Read a good book.
7. Design a dress.
8. Learn a few words in another language.
9. If you have the internet learn a new dance move, if not create one.
10. Listen to your favorite music and have a dance party all by yourself.
11. Do your nails.
12. Write a note of encouragement to someone.
13. Make a nice cup of tea.
14. Make a bracelet with embroidery floss.
15. Cover a page with doodles or sketches.
16. Learn to do a french braid on yourself or lace braid.
17. Write notes to your dad and hide them in his apartment. Or to anyone where you have the privilege of being a house guest.
18. Draw a picture which would be good for a greeting card and enter to win $10,000 for college.
19. Exercise or run in place for 10 minutes.
20. Look out the window and draw a picture of what you see.
21. Design two posters with your favorite Bible verses.
22. Pray for your sister.
23. Pray for your brother.
24. Pray for your mother.
25. Pray for your dad.
26. Read your Bible.
27. Make up a game.
28. Learn about who is John Burroughs?
29. Learn where Abraham Lincoln born and when.
30. Brush your hair 100 strokes from top to bottom.
31. Do something nice for someone.
32. Count your blessings. Write them down.
33. Dust the baseboards in the house.
34. Complete a word search.
35. Find a simple design like a silhouette of a giraffe or elephant. Copy it onto a sheet of cardstock. Turn the cardstock over and glue one inch wide and about 8-12 inch long paper strips of varying colors side by side. Turn the paper back over and cut out the image. Then mount it on a solid piece of cardstock.
36. Write a short silly poem.
37. Sing a song out loud.
38. Memorize the 23rd Psalm.
39. Write down your favorite food and the first time you remember eating it.
40. Dance around the room. It’s good exercise.
41. Tell someone Thank You today.
42. Write down 3 places you want to see one day.
43. Hop on one foot.
44. Practice a handstand.
45. Cook dinner.
46. Practice your multiplication tables.
47. If you are not married write down 3 things you want your future mate to be like.  If you are married write down 3 things you appreciate about your mate.
48. Who invented the light bulb? How many times did he try before he got it right?
49. Write one thing you want to learn to do and come up with a game plan. Learn something new!
50. Write down your earliest memory.
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Day 2 of our Keene, NH Trip

 

We slept well in Erie, Pa. We awoke early and got packed up and ready for the trip. We then all went down for breakfast. We were so happy to find out that the rest of our team had arrived! The Logue family! We sorted out who was riding where and hit the road. We were hoping to arrive by 5 pm to have dinner with the elders. As we were driving we passed a sign that said, Niagara Falls. Until that moment I did not realize we would be traveling so close to the Falls. I was so busy getting ready for the trip that I really did not pay attention to any sights along the route. But no time to stop, we had to save that for another day.

We had a few issues with GPS along the way and a jaunt over the mountains passed by Hogback Mountain and through the woods. We finally all arrived at the church building in Keene, New Hampshire. We met with our wonderful brethren and made a plan for the work we would do during our time in Keene.

We found out the timetable for Sunday Morning Bible Class and Worship. We didn’t want the church to show up with us still in our jammies! We set up our air mattresses in the church building and got ready for a rest. We would be showering at the Y but could not get our passes until Monday morning.

Hogback Mt. 

 

Sleeping in the Church building

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Day 1 of our Keene, New Hampshire Trip

This year I had the opportunity to go to Keene, NH to work with the Church of Christ.  I had been in touch with the church for a couple of years about the possibility of coming to do a short work with them. What started out to be a teen mission trip turned into a family mission trip. Doesn’t the Lord have a way of doing things like that? Our team was a group of 12 ranging in age from 5 years to 80! Our trip was 1100 miles each way. We drove in 3 cars. Our first day we drove from Smyrna, Tn to Erie, Pa and stopped for the night. We had a few adventures while there. We got checked into our rooms and then I asked the kids if they would like to go for a drive. You can imagine the looks I received after driving all day. I didn’t take no for an answer and after a wrong turn or two, we arrived on the shores of Lake Erie. What a beautiful lake! We stood in awe at its size and beauty. It was nearing sunset but we enjoyed some time on the beach. I loved watching the kids running and playing on the beach. No money could buy that joy. We found some beautiful very smooth rocks to remember our time there. After returning to our motel the older girls jumped into the pool while I went to the room with the younger kids. The younger kids ran a few feet ahead of me and rounded the corner and got on the elevator without me! About that time I heard a huge explosive sound! I was so distressed as I tried to get to the littles and then run to the older girls. I got the littles settled with Lawrence while I ran to check on the older girls. Fire trucks and police cars had arrived by this time. After I was assured everyone was ok and told the girls to come to the room I went to find out what was going on. I soon found out that there were fireworks on the property next door and one must have gotten out of hand! What a scare. We ate sandwiches and chips in the room, had devotional and got showered and ready for bed. And the story continues…..

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Dad and the New Century – Cotton Patch

This is a reprint from the Cotton Patch (2000) Written by Jo Redding and talking about her father who was born in the year 1900.

If my father had lived until January first of this year, he would have welcomed in the new millenium 2000 A.D with a passion. Having been born August 1, 1900, he could have seen, except for a few months, the entire twentieth century. That would have been exciting!

If Dad were here today, he would delight in telling everyone what tremendous changes had occurred in his lifetime. Concerning the first quarter of the century, he would recall how horses, horse-drawn carriages and trains slowly gave way to automobiles, so that by the late twenties, many families owned their own cars.

Change begets change. Rough, muddy streets were not as easily traveled on in the newfangled vehicles as they had been with horses, and poor pedestrians and onlookers were subjected to more dust or mud being stirred up and slung at them by fast rotating wheels. Streets needed to be changed to harder smoother surfaces and sidewalks became a necessity for the comfort and safety of shoppers walking about town. As more and more families began to travel together, women’s clothing had to slim down to allow room for everyone to fit into their vehicle and so ruffles, bustles and hoop skirts gave way to slimmer styles of the “flapper” era.

Dramatic changes resulted from everyone having their own automobile, but during the second quarter when electricity became available to rural Americans, the door was wide open to a variety of new experiences. Electric lights, stoves, refrigerators, washing machines, sewing machines and radios became standard items in a household. Following that came record players, tape recorders, typewriters, etc., and in the late forties TV antennae began to adorn the roof tops of city homes.

Of all the electrical gadgets that developed during those years, TV has been the most controversial and yet it has influenced our lifestyles considerably. From active, creative, outdoor recreation to sedate, passive indoor entertainment. Indoor, interactive family fun with games such as Monopoly, Tiddlywinks, Checkers, Bingo, Old Maid, Dominoes, jigsaw puzzles, charades, plays and skits (made up on the spot), singing, story telling and readings have been laid aside while the TV does the entertaining of its passive living room audiences who interact very little among themselves.

My parents had a TV, and I know they enjoyed being in touch with what was happening in the news and weather. Although I had moved away by then, I can imagine them enjoying the Lawrence Welk show and Red Skelton. Mom would have loved historical novels and Dad would have kept up with political issues. He was a true patriot of our country and always said he enjoyed paying taxes! He knew that without them his schools would suffer from lack of funds, and he realized how much we all enjoy good roads and public facilities that make life easier. He certainly made good use of the government-owned TVA lakes in northern Alabama where fishing became one of his greatest passions.

Dad was very interested in science, history, geography and math, and as I make this statement, I recall that he held a high regard for the disciplines of English and literature as well. Perhaps being the dedicated teacher that he was, he developed an interest in all areas that could provide him with knowledge that he considered important to the many students he hoped to influence.

Since his death in the early seventies, the standards for TV shows has changed tremendously. Dad would lament over the fact that immorality is displayed so unashamedly; in fact he would be very vocal about it. He would be saddened to tears at the perversion of love as it is portrayed in the lyrics of popular songs and in movies. So much of what he tried to teach in schools and churches would be lost in the flood of publicity that seems to laud the greed, lust and selfishness of human beings without a God. His patriotic emotions for his country would have been crushed by the immoral acts of our president and by the fact that his behavior got a mere “slap on the wrist.”

Except for mainframes and punch cards, computers were unheard of when Dad died. Had he lived to see PC’s in every school and home, he would see them as tools of education and be delighted at the opportunities they could provide. Upon further investigation, he would become dismayed by the availability of smut and pornography via e-mail and chat rooms as well as entire web sites. He would be torn in his judgement: “Does the good outweigh the bad?” He would not deny the use of computers or TV or anything that has such a great potential for education, but he would increase his efforts to teach right from wrong. He would impress on individuals the importance of maintaining their own integrity whether anyone else around them did so or not.

I believe this represents how Dad would have perceived a century of changes if he could have spoken to us on August 1, 2000 A.D.

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Games Your Grandma Played- Cotton Patch

Recently, I had a conversation with my grandson, Jonas about his outside play. I found out that he made up many of the games he and the neighbor kids were playing. This thrilled me! I really enjoy seeing children outside, making up their own games and sharing their creativity. Just watch and see, they are having a great time doing it! Whether they are making up their own games or playing with toys these are great experiences.  I believe it is so good for children to spend a lot of time outside and to come up with their own fun. I have many fond memories of homemade fun and of my children and nephews playing all over Redding Mountain. Below is another Cotton Patch article that was written by my mother-in-law on her childhood games. After you read the article please leave a comment about one of your favorite childhood games. –Reda

What did children do to occupy their minds and free time when there were no TV’s, no Jam Boxes, no stereos nor even radios? There were, also, no telephones on which to talk to friends. During, and for several years following the Great Depression, most parents that I knew did not have money to spend on gasoline to run around from one activity to another. There were basketball games associated with the schools, but even those were not attended by many people that lived beyond walking distance. So what did the children do for recreation?

If you can imagine having no TV’s, no computers, no radios, etc., and if you can picture a home that is not filled with things from Toys ‘R Us or Schwinn’s Cyclery, from K-Mart or even the Dollar Store, then you may be able to understand the task of “finding something to do”. Families were somewhat larger, then, and parents relied on the older siblings to watch for and entertain the younger ones. What better way to keep up with the little ones than to play games with them? Many of the games played during that time had survived through several generations, and some of them are still being played even today. It continues to amaze me to learn that people who grew up in Texas and West Virginia played a lot of the same games that I played while growing up in Alabama.

Some outdoor games that were favorites for groups of children included Hide and Go Seek, Red Rover, Red Rover, Farmer in the Dell, Drop the Handkerchief, Mother, May I?, Hop Scotch, Annie-Over, and many others. Kick the Can was not so popular, but it was so ingenious, that I must mention it. Most children could not afford a new ball every time something happened to their old one, but they always had access to an old tin can. What can one do with an old can? It can be kicked from a base, and while the player in the field is retrieving it, the kicker can try to run to a base and back home, before being tagged. Who needs a ball?

The tin can was also used to provide other forms of recreation. With its label still intact, it could be a can of food on the shelf in a make-believe home. But the most fun that I experienced with tin cans was by using them as a short version of Tom Walkers. (You may better know them as stilts). Tin cans were substituted for the wooden legs, and it was not so far to the ground if one fell down. To make the “walkers”, two holes were punched in the bottoms of two cans by using a “rock” hammer and a nail. (If you could get the holes punched without smashing a finger or causing the nail to fly through the air and land in some unknown place, you were quite lucky!) A rope was then threaded through the holes so that both ends of the rope were on the outside. While in a standing position, a would-be walker held the ends of the rope firmly in his hands as he placed each foot on the bottom of a can. Holding the ropes tightly enough to keep the cans in contact with the feet, one could thus walk around feeling like a giant. Taller cans made taller giants, naturally, but they were not nearly so scary as Tom Walkers on which one’s feet were about 36 inches off the ground.

Playing House was definitely for girls, but sometimes the younger boys were persuaded to join in to help make a *real *family. I enjoyed two different kinds of playing house. One was definitely a fair weather activity, but the other one could be played indoors or outdoors, and the cost of all the equipment in either case was practically nothing.

The fair weather house was built outside, preferably in a lightly wooded area. The “house” was outlined on the ground with limbs and sticks, or rocks and occasionally bricks. Rooms were also outlined, and sometimes pretty green moss was laid like carpet on some of the floors. Inside the house, various lengths of wooden boards laid across two rocks became anything from a chair, a sofa, a bed, or a table. If one had bricks, layers of boards and bricks made good cabinets with several shelves. Pieces of colored glass made beautiful dishes, and leaves of various sorts became green vegetables to be cooked. Dirt and water could be mixed up to make mud pies or anything you wanted it to be.

The amount of fun that one had with these simple activities was limited only by one’s lack of imagination. Were those the “Good Ole Times”? I’ll leave that to your imagination.

When a child’s imagination is not directed by ready-made toys, programs and directed activities, he does not as readily suffer from boredom. A child, who creates an object or a situation, will not be as critical as when someone else creates it…he will more likely be content.

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Mom’s Whoopie Pies

While in the Northeast recently I came across a lot of whoopie pies! One of the ladies from church brought some to share AND she was willing to share her recipe with me. Well, actually it was her mom’s recipe. She brought two kinds of whoopie pies to share: these yummy chocolate ones and some zucchini ones.*  I got permission to share her recipe. Thanks, Beth!

Mom’s Whoopie Pie

(Boy, these will take you back to the good ole days!)

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 tsp. soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/3 cup cocoa

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

3/4 cup milk

1/3 cup oil

Sift the flour, soda, and salt together. Mix the cocoa and sugar together and combine with the flour mixture. Beat the egg slightly and add the vanilla and milk to it. Combine with other mixtures. Finally, add the oil and mix well. Drop on a baking pan.  2 Tablespoons for each cake. 12 cakes to a pan. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes.
Whoopie Pie Filling
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup Crisco
1 cup confectioner sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
3 tsp. marshmallow fluff
Beat butter, Crisco, sugar, and vanilla with an electric beater. Fold in fluff. Spread between halves of the whoopie pie cakes. Wrap in plastic to store.

 

Marie Hazelton passed this along to her daughter Bethany Guion and we appreciate that for sure. Keeping passing those recipes down folks! Share your stories!

  • You can find the Zucchini Whoopie Pies here: https://www.sixsistersstuff.com/recipes/zucchini-whoopie-pie-cookies
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Oxford School – Cotton Patch

Revisiting the familiar territory around Oxford School where I had attended fifth and sixth grades under my father, brought back more memories of the years between 1939 and 1943.

We lived in the teachers’ home which had 2 small bedrooms, living room, kitchen, pantry, 2 porches and a “car shed”.

The bathroom was an outdoor building that also served the school. It was on a slight hill on the other side of our large fenced garden spot making it quite a distance from the house. Because such a walk was unthinkable in the dark, we used a small portable facility called a “slop jar” at night. The job of emptying it was not a favorite thing to do, but we each had our turn. Once, it had gotten dark when I remembered that I had not brought the “jar” in for the night and, being somewhat afraid to go get it, I mentioned it to my oldest sister and asked her what I should do. Well, she gave me an extremely effective answer; one that has also become a very popular saying among Christian young people today. She merely asked, “What would Jesus do?” I didn’t have to think …I knew…and it gave me the courage to accept my responsibility. Knowing that I was doing right empowered me to lay aside my fears that night, and that question has been useful to me many times since. When the WWJD bracelets began to be worn a few years ago, I was excited about the positive influence they could have in the lives of those who used them properly.

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and we entered into World War II. It was a hard time for many families whose boys were drafted into armed services, but it was a time when patriotism was at a peak. We sang patriotic songs at school, and we were encouraged to buy ten-cent war stamps which, when enough were accumulated, could be exchanged for war bonds. The smallest bond cost $18.75 mature at $25.00. Gasoline, coffee, sugar, etc. had to be rationed, and communities worked together on many common causes.

In 1941-1943 I attended a Jr. High school whose principal had served in World War I and was a high ranking official in the National Guards. He incorporated army style marching (including presenting arms) into our physical education program. We learned to do right turns, left turns, about face, column march, march in place, attention, at-ease, etc. It connected us to the boys who were fighting in faraway places.

Aunt Ethel Bates, Dad’s sister, lived in a nice big yellow house about a quarter of a mile up the road in one direction and Aunt Vona Davis, Dad’s aunt, lived about half that distance in the other direction. Both families were a big part of the enjoyment of living in that community. Each family had a girl near my own age with which I shared some good times. Bessie was the youngest child and only girl in Aunt Vona’s family. Evelyn was the fourth child and the first girl in Aunt Ethel’s family of four boys and two girls.

Both of these aunts were good homemakers, diligent in providing for their families and in sharing with neighbors. Both husbands did well with farming and their homes reflected their prosperity. The homes still look good today because someone has continued to care for them.
Few tragedies have touched my immediate or extended family, but one which can’t be surpassed occurred in the Bates’ home. I seldom speak of them without the memory surfacing to haunt me still.

Aunt Ethel’s washing machine was on the side porch, and one day as she was busy with her wash, she had hot water in the washpot. Some of the children were playing marbles out in the yard and had been cautioned to be careful, but in the excitement of the game the youngest boy backed into the fire and fell into the pot of hot water. He was not killed immediately but died on the way to the hospital or soon thereafter. A sister-in-law related how Brice tried to comfort his mother on the way to the hospital saying that he didn’t hurt. Evidently, his feelings were gone and he felt no pain!

For months I witnessed the unbearable pain suffered by a parent in the loss of a child. The months became years before grief did its healing process well enough for that household to be restored to its former state of joyfulness.

Tragedies, though hard to bear, can teach us lessons that help us survive hardships that follow. They can also help form within us the softer qualities of compassion and concern for the feelings of others.

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Fudge Pie

For my friend Teresa’s birthday, I made her a fudge pie.  I used the recipe I found from :

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/12350/fudge-pie/

I recently bought this cute little 6-inch pie plate! Isn’t it cute? So I made one just for her and a larger one to share.

This is a very easy and quick recipe for fudge pie. I chose this one because I had the ingredients on hand and it was a great choice.

 

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Piney Chapel – Cotton Patch

Recently, I had the privilege of revisiting several of the places where my childhood memories have taken me in the stories from the Cotton Patch. It was a rewarding visit, complete with the nostalgia that we experience when we realize that those times of the past are only memories. The joy of the experience was made greater by the presence of two of my sisters, who have shared in my memories, and my husband who has encouraged me to write about them.

The Piney Chapel community was the place where we moved in with the bedbugs and waged an all-out war to get them out of the crevices of our beaded ceiling walls and where our mother persistently treated us for scabies every time we scratched. It was there that my anger got the best of me and I hit a first grade classmate in the head with a piece of coal for following me and singing, “She’s My Curly Headed Baby”. Of all the events that I have recounted that had nothing to do with cotton, most of them occurred in this little corner of Limestone County, Alabama.

As we drove around looking for familiar sights, we were dismayed by the changes in and the loss of many buildings, but we were equally amazed at the unchanged condition of others. Sixty-four years ago, I was running around playing on the swing sets and climbing on the monkey bars of the school that still exists. A small area of the schoolyard was familiar, but the addition of many buildings has displaced the teacherage in which we lived. The house had been about halfway between the school and the church building, and, although we missed it the first time we drove by, the church building is still there. It is not so magnificent a place as I remembered it, but it gave me a thrill to see it. Best of all, diagonally across the street stood the house where the Broadways lived.

We could not believe how little this neighbor’s house had changed. The cellar, with its sloping tin door, was there, validating my memories of sliding down the cellar door and singing, “Come Out My Playmates, come out and play with me…and bring your dollies, three…climb up my apple tree..shout down my rain barrel….slide down my cellar door, and we’ll be jolly friends forevermore….”! Windows that opened out over the roof of the front porch reminded me of times Rebecca and I had played “dress-up” in that upstairs room.

We left Piney Chapel and went west of Athens to the very rural community of Oxford Elementary School and Pleasant Valley Church. On the way, we tried to find an old favorite spot for swimming and fishing. We almost despaired of finding it, but eventually, we got our thrill of knowing that we had located it. The “end” of the backwaters from the river and two streams through which we had driven before they put culverts across the road were foolproof evidences that it was “our” spot.

A few miles from the river we located the old homeplace of one of my dad’s aunts. Some of her children and grandchildren established homes on nearby farms, and we were able to recognize a few. One that I was most interested in was Ross Holland’s home that had sat among some big shade trees and had a porch that went around two or three sides of the house. The porch always intrigued me and I thought the house was handsome. Well, it has changed a great deal and if houses could shrink, I would say it has shrunk to about half of its original size!

I saw fields where I had picked cotton and the barn looked the same as I remembered it. There were cows in a pasture and the country store building across the street is still useful. Except for the house itself and the paved street, the place looks as if life has continued in the same way for sixty years.

Oxford school no longer exists, but the concrete bell tower that I watched being built is still standing, and the teachers’ home where we lived looks very much the same. It was here I had the great Halloween scare and in turn frightened my parents by hiding so successfully. It was here my father taught me in fifth and sixth grades. It was here we lived between an aunt and a great aunt whose houses appear so wonderfully unchanged.

Time is forever moving forward, never backward, and so our experiences come and are gone. We will never relive a moment of time, but our memories enable us to vicariously play pleasant scenes and emotions over again and again.

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Halloween Cotton Patch 14

I have decided to keep the articles in their original order. Even though Halloween is not in July! Sit for a spell in the cool and enjoy a story of long ago. -Reda

Whenever our rural Alabama schools celebrated a major holiday, it was always a special and joyous occasion for me. Not only did the holidays contribute to my joy, but the seasons themselves, each with their own unique beauties, were just as delightful..

The autumn season in which Halloween and Thanksgiving are celebrated was especially impressive to me, as it is today. The beautifully colored leaves stirred up a wonder in my soul, and the fresh, crisp air renewed the physical energy that had been sapped by the long, hot summer. An abundance of acorns lay everywhere inviting me to step on them in order to hear crunchy, crackling, delightful sounds. Gathering scaly bark hickory nuts, pecans, black walnuts, beechnuts and just plain old hickory nuts, gave excuses enough to take long, lazy walks in the woods, either alone or with other family members. Celebrating a holiday, however, was most often a public experience that centered around school functions.

Pilgrim costumes, complete with black top hats for the boys and big white collars and aprons for the girls, made the acting out of the first Thanksgiving feast an impressive extension of our reading and history lessons.

Halloween was announced, as it is today, with figures of ghosts, witches, bats, skeletons etc. hanging from wherever they could be hung. The teachers and parents of the community usually took advantage of this season to make money by staging a school carnival.

Very little money was spent on preparations for the carnival. A “fishing pond” containing cheap, but neat, trinkets allowed those who paid a fee to throw in their fishing lines to go “fishing”. People behind the scenes attached a prize to the line with a clothes pin and then gave a strong tug on the line as a cue for the fisherman to pull out his “fish”.

The “haunted house” was full of all sorts of things to create weird or icky feelings and sounds. A rubber glove filled with oatmeal, attached to the end of a stick, became a dead man’s hand to be shaken. An “airplane ride” for blindfolded customers jostled and shook them around on a board which was never more than six inches off the floor! (Such was the simplicity of it all ). Fortune-telling, cake walks, and other fun-filled activities rounded out the evenings of fun and fellowship with neighbors, both young and old.

We did not go “trick or treating” in those days, but people made a lot of strange noises in their attempts to create a scary atmosphere. One homemade instrument that produced a horrible sounding noise was made from stretching a cowhide over the open ends of a metal cylinder. After punching a hole in the middle of each stretched hide, a cord or heavy string was pulled back and forth through the holes in the hide. What an **awesome **sound it made! That sound was a major force that precipitated the events of the following story.

On this particular Halloween, we were living in the teacherage which was located between Oxford Elementary School and the country road below. The secret “rooms” had been set up at school, ready to thrill and perhaps frighten those who would pay to be thrilled and frightened. I was chosen to stay home with a young sibling that evening, but from the front porch and living room of our home, I could see all the lights at the carnival, and I could see silhouettes of the parked cars and of people going in and out of the building. In the beginning I felt pretty secure, yet as it became darker and darker and the noises got louder and louder, my secure feeling began to feel shakier and shakier.

I turned out all the lights in our house so that I could see into the darkness better, but eventually the din of noises (which included some cow hide contraptions) reached a level that was intolerable. I had had enough Halloween “fun”, so I took the baby to the car and locked the doors. We were not long in feeling safe enough to fall sound asleep.

When my family came home to an empty house, it was not long before neighbors joined in a desperate search for the two of us. Someone even peeked into the car and missed us, but eventually we were found, and my most memorable and frightful Halloween was over.

Unfounded fears are not limited to children, and the fact that they are unfounded does not make them any less real to the fearful individual. If a child’s unfounded fears are dealt with realistically, his mental perception will probably develop so that he is better able to distinguish between real and unreal fears as an adult.