Cornbread and Boll Weevils, a Halloween Memory

Halloween was my favorite holiday when I was young in Vivian, Louisiana.  No one had yet heard of predators preying on unsuspecting kids, so my parents, and everyone else’s parents would let us go trick-or-treating as soon as it got dark.  What’s more, no one expected us home anytime soon. 

I couldn’t have been much more than five when I began staying out until the wee hours, dressed as a ghost or goblin, with my big brother Jack and close friend Wiley.  Most people quit answering their doors at ten but that didn’t keep us from knocking, or turning over their trash cans if no one answered and rewarded us with candy. 

The only thing I can remember that was slightly unsavory was that someone gave us weevil bread – cornbread with boll weevils cooked into it.  We all decided that we had gotten the weevil bread from the mayor’s house. 

I grew up in a different time, not better, just different, but I’ll never forget the feeling I had that I was somehow invisible, and that the darkness was where I was destined to be.

 

Eric'sWeb