My apologies to anyone who lived in the Bonnabel area or anywhere north of West Esplanade in Metairie around Halloween 1987. The story I am about to relate is true, and no attempt has been made to hide the identities of those mentioned.*
On Halloween 1987, I was a senior in high school. Things were going great, and I had a 1983 Nissan Stanza with a sunroof. On the way to school that Friday, I refused to let anyone sit in the front seat of my car as it was occupied by an inflatable skeleton. I drove around in a green-skinned mask with pink cotton hair. I have no idea where either of these items came from.
Halloween was a Saturday that year. I believe that we went to the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the old Sena Mall. My memory is hazy, but I think I was with Chris and George. Carlos was supposed to join us, but he bailed so he could hang out with his girlfriend, Tina. That, we thought, was lame. We didn't care for her, and he blew a chance to hang out with the guys.
So we drove around collecting pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns. We filled the trunk of my little stanza three times. Each time, we emptied the full trunk of pumpkins on Carlos' yard at the end of Ridgeway. When we were finished early in the morning, his entire yard was covered in small, medium, large, and extra large sized orange globes.
But we weren't finished. We drove around stealing everything that wasn't nailed or tied down. And some things that were. Some people near Causeway had an entire family of scarecrows stuffed with brand new clothes, many with the tags still on. We divided the clothes, the prize being the long-sleeved Stolichnaya t-shirt. We didn't even know what Stoli was back then, but the shirt was great and was only recently retired from the LatinTeacher collection.
We stole sheets hanging from trees and every other scary Halloween thing. We filled the trunk and half the back seat with clothes and plastic items and headless horsemen. One of the stuffed creatures we stole had a pole which would not fit in the car. We did not want to leave such a marvelous find on the side of the road, so we opened the sun roof and held on as we continued to pilfer things. I can only imagine what this must have looked like though I am not sure many saw us.
At the end of the night, I guess we dumped the sheets somewhere because I have no idea now what we would have done with them. I know we kept one to create a compartment in the trunk in which to hide beer. The rest had holes cut out or were stained or damaged in some way. As a student who went to a school where uniforms were required, it was great to have some clothes that weren't bought by my mom or khaki. Sure I didn't know what Stoli was, but I had a cool shirt that the chicks would dig. And Carlos had to pick up pumpkins all morning. Serves him right for dissing his friends.
*I will tell this story as though it were Halloween night, but it may
have been All Saints' Day night because I think Carlos got in a lot of
shit on a school day. I think I remember him coming to school later than usual because he had to clean up all the pumpkins in his yard. However, I am getting old and my memory isn't what it used to be. 10 years ago, I could have told you the time that we stole each item. It might make more sense as to why there were so few cars and people about, but then again, I remember it being late which would not have been so likely on a Sunday. The point is that this was really fun, and I can't believe we didn't get in trouble for doing so much mischief. The year before, in my pink paisley shirt, I walked home along the levee smoking cigarettes as people jogged by in the early morning sun. My mom gave me a curfew of dawn because my dad was out of town. I didn't make it. But that's another story
