Pat Shingleton for Oct. 31, 2012

During my younger years, cold, rain or snow never stopped our Halloween preparations. As noted in a previous column, gardens in the neighborhood had lingering stalks of corn still holding an ear or two. Once shucked, the kernels were as hard as gravel, easily twisted from the cob. The kernels were separated into paper bags and that’s when the Halloween pranks began ... for some. My brother Denis and I didn’t participate in these activities. The Halloweeners who did included the Sudano boys, Dangerous Doug Kelly, Pumpkin Head Hulick, Dumps Wiley, Skunk Tritt and my brothers Kevin and Mike. As Denis and I completed our homework at the kitchen table, assisting my mother in treat distribution, the rattle of hard corn on the windows sounded like a machine gun. Fastcast: Boo-Tee-Full.