Halloween Memories: Hyrum

Halloween Memories: Hyrum
We lived in Hyrum for three years, second to fourth grades for me, then moved away for a couple of years; and then returned to Hyrum.  I don’t remember much about Halloween the first couple years, but I was old enough to go with older siblings the first couple years, and then with friends my fourth grade year.  I would go as Casper the Friendly Ghost.  Casper was cool.
Halloween in Hyrum, in those days was accompanied by fire.  It was a time for burning leaves, and kids would always light up the leaves in the gutters.  Sometimes they would also add gas.  I remember one year there was a tire rolling down Main Street, which had been doused with gas and then set on fire.  Hyrum Main Street has a pretty good hill.
In Hyrum at that time, houses were spaced fairly far apart, so in a block you would hit three or four homes.  A block being an eighth of a mile meant to hit a great deal of houses, there was a good deal of walking to be done.  If we had been smart, we would have cut over to Main Street where the houses were closer.  We would go there sometimes, at least around our own block, but mostly we would stay on our street, 100 South.  We would follow that street all the way to Center, and then come back on 200 or 300 South, catching the houses on the East West streets as best we could.  By the end of the evening we would collect a goodly amount of candy, but we would be tired as well.  I remember there was one house who gave full size candy bars.  That was a treat.  Families also gave apples and popcorn balls in those days.  You don’t see those anymore.  Everything is store bought and individually wrapped now.
When we returned to Hyrum I was a seventh grader.  I remember some trick-or-treating, but we leaned to the tricking side.  We would have a bar of soap, maybe a few rolls of toilet paper, and when I was older we would add a bit of gas to our tricking tools.  My cousin went with me one yer.  We put gas on top of a stop sign and lit it.  It didn't burn long however.
Another year we lit some leaves in a gutter.  A police man confronted us.  Of course we denied our involvement, he he made us help him put it out all the same.