Now the village of Chuckatuck had its own form of trick or treat on this special night. Yes, we made our way in costume to several houses as very young kids for candy and would always say “trick or treat”. The parents were there only for the really small kids and as you became of age, five or six, you were on your own. As you grew older and understood the lay of the land and the home owners the house of “Shot Gun Daisy” diagonally across from the Methodist church yard was one to avoid. For those of us who were avid ball players and the church yard being our favorite spot there was always the possibility that a stray ball might end up in her front yard. We could assume that she had nothing better to do than watch us and if a ball went into her yard she was out of the house and on top of it right away. Many of us feared her mostly because of her name “Shot Gun Daisy”. Now it was well known that on at least one occasion during a Halloween night several of the boys were laying in the ditch on the church side of the road when shots were fired from her front porch. A quick dash into the cemetery crashing into a tall wrought iron fence was uncomfortable at best, but better than the alternative or at least we thought so. Now her house was of the clap board type and was especially susceptible to having a nail shoved between two boards with a long string, coated with wax, attached. Once you pulled the string taut you could slide your fingers up and down the string and it made a sound as though someone were ripping the clap boards right off the house. We guess this might have been unnerving for her, but then it was Halloween. Not to be outdone the older boys would take a brown paper bag, fill it with dog poop, put it on her front porch and light it on fire after knocking on the door. The early knock was to preclude any fire damage should she be delayed in coming out however as expected she would answer the door immediately, see the fire and proceed to stomp on it. What a mess, and, yes, she did put it out and the boys knew they should not have done that “but then it was Halloween”. This writer believes that had she not been so adamant about taking our baseballs and softballs which inadvertently ended up in her yard she would have received the same treatment on Halloween as the rest of the community. That statement is made simply as one of redemption.
