Halloween and Hickey's Hdwr

Lyman County, South Dakota's Genealogy

Hallowe’en, Hickeys and the hardware store


Let’s see, Hallowe’en is just around the corner. Watch out for the little ones as they dart across the streets to get to the next house. A hundred years ago we did the "soap the windows" thing to houses and cars. The big guys tipped over the outhouses (easily so as not to wreck them) and drug tree branches across the streets to block traffic. Of course, in Reliance there was always "Pig Chon M" (John M. Hoffer) the town marshal, trying for all he was worth to catch the low-down dirty rascals who did half the things they did just for his benefit. I would venture to guess that those days of chasing Chon M around town so he could chase you are talked about around many a table. In all honesty, he probably enjoyed the chase as much as the chasers did.

And the masquerade balls. I can still see Bert and Ivah Hickey going as a bride and groom in reversed roles, her being the groom. Which makes me remember Clyde and Leona Hickey. Her with the best things to eat way up there at the top of those 20-plus rickety old stairs that leaned away from the side of the Hickey Hardware building. I always thought God must be holding those stairs up, what else could it be?

Down in the hardware store was this five-gallon (or bigger?) can in the middle of the floor. It held limburger cheese and stunk up the whole store! Oh what a smell! I was sure it was the only place on earth that had such nasty stuff, but the men seemed to like it. If you have never smelled the stuff believe me when I say it smelled bad enough to send a noseless person running for fresh air.

 Is it just me or were there 20 times more scary Halloween movies on TV this year? My gosh, no matter what channel I we went to it was monsters and blood and guts. Taylor and I did find one fun one with Debbie Reynolds as this cute (what else can she be?) old grandma witch.
     Last year, before the ghosts and goblins started ringing the doorbell Hallow'een night, I called over to a friend's house to see if they had their treats ready for "trickers" and was told, "No, but if you want to come over and turn a trick, c'mon." Told him I was sorry, but I was trying to quit.


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