This Halloween, classrooms are filled with talk of plans for the night, costumes and haunted houses. While students reminisce about their old Halloween costumes and memories, few stop to wonder
what their teachers did for Halloween before they spent their time grading papers and creating lesson plans. They, too, were once children who eagerly waited for this time to come around, carefully arranging their costumes and mapping out the best places to collect candy.
For geometry and psychology teacher Laura Distelrath, Halloween was a night to spend time with her mother and older brother. One year, they celebrated her May birthday right around Halloween. That year, she and her friends gathered to decorate pillowcases to use when they went trick-or-treating, which some ended up using for the following years, creating a fond memory not just for Distelrath but also for her friends.
“We had my birthday party in October, and my friends came over. We decorated pillowcases, which we used to trick-or-treat,” Distelrath said. “Even in middle school and the beginning of high school, we would still go trick-or-treating. My friends would say, ‘Oh, I still use my pillowcase from your birthday party and elementary school.’”
Cindy Morefield-Pinder, a Spanish teacher at South, has different Halloween memories than most. Although she celebrated each year by dressing up in costumes, trick-or-treating wasn’t as accessible for her family. Her father was a park ranger, and her family lived in a state park with no houses for miles. Her family would drive to the few houses nearest to them, the neighbors, also tucked away in the woods, would hand out the full-size candy bars to the few trick-or-treaters who stopped by.
“One time, we thought suburban kids had it made, so we went to the suburbs,” Morefield-Pinder said. “But I got these little nasty candies, and I was like, ‘What’s this?’ I wasn’t used to that, because our neighbors knew there’d only be a few of us, so they always got the good stuff.”
Assistant Principal Katie Parent’s Halloween memories revolve around her mother’s handmade costumes. Every year, her mother would pick out a new fabric or print to create a costume with.
“My favorite Halloween memory is that my mom always made my costumes,” Parent said. “She’s a gifted seamstress, and wearing something handmade that couldn’t be bought in a store is so special.”
Though each of their ways of celebrating Halloween looked different, Morefield-Pinder, Distelrath and Parent all share memories of community and creativity through their stories.
“I’d rather take my time, go down somebody’s winding driveway, and end up with that one good candy bar. Life lessons, you know?” Morefield-Pinder said.
