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Ghosts of Halloween
Past
Local residents & officials recall their best costumes and
worst treats
Linda
Hippert
Superintendent, South Fayette School District
Favorite
Costume:
Sister Jones, from St.
Agatha’s Church, made me a Sister of Mercy nun outfit. Along
with another girl in fourth grade – her
name was Darice Emma – we used to help count the milk and
put it in crates every morning. So, Sister Jones made these
outfits for us, and we marched in the Bridgeville parade
dressed as nuns. This is back when nuns wore the traditional
full habit, and we had these outfits that were just like the
real thing, but smaller. I still have it.
Worst
Candy: What I liked least
were those popcorn balls. They were too hard to eat. The best
things to get were full-sized Baby Ruths.
Louis
Volle
Chief, South Fayette Police Department
Favorite
Costume: I always went as
a ghost. Every year there was a dress-up day at school, and we
would wait until that morning to tell our mother that we
needed costumes for school that day. She’d end up taking the
sheets right off our beds, cutting eyeholes, and making us go
as ghosts.
Worst
Candy: Tomato soup. There
was this one lady in my neighborhood, and every year she would
put cans of tomato soup in our bags. The best thing to get was
candy corn. I love candy corn.
Shelly
Belcher
Communications Director, South Fayette School District
Favorite
Costume: When I was in
second grade, my best friend’s mom made us each a drink box
costume. There were three of us, and we represented three
different flavors. I was Grape Hi-C, and the other girls were
orange and cherry. Back then, we used to run from house to
house to knock on as many doors as we could. My girlfriend
tried running in the costume, but you couldn’t lift your
knees high enough because of the outfit, so she tripped and
fell and slid down a hillside dressed as a juice box.
Worst
Candy: Necco-Wafers. They’re
awful. It’s like a tiny little disk with no flavor. Someone
actually gave them to my daughter recently, and she spat it
out of her mouth and said, “Mommy, take this.”
Verla
Bell
Assistant, South Fayette Township Library
Favorite
Costume: Back then we
would usually just put a sheet over our heads and go as a
ghost. Or we would rub dirt on our faces, wear dirty clothes,
and go as a bum.
Worst
Candy:
The worst thing to get
back then was potato chips. People would just take a handful
of potato chips and toss them into your bag. As for the best,
in those days, a 5 cent candy bar was a big deal. When someone
found out who was passing out 5 cent candy bars, word spread
very quickly.
 Mike
Hoy
Manager, South Fayette Township
Favorite
Costume: When I was a real
little kid, I dressed up as a pumpkin one year, and that was a
really great costume. It wasn’t homemade, but it was a really
good pumpkin.
Worst
Candy: I hated when you
got little bags of popcorn. It was always stale. The best was
a fullsize Snickers bar.
Emerald
VanBuskirk
Director, South West Communities Chamber of Commerce
Favorite
Costume: Back then, I
thought I was an artist, so every year I’d have some great
idea. My mom was a seamstress, so she would make something,
and my dad would do the face painting. My favorite might have
been the witch from the Wizard of Oz, with a broom and
everything.
Worst
Candy: We hated to get
fruit, or anything healthy. My favorite used to be those
button candies, those little pieces of sugar attached to a
little piece of paper.
 Joe
Farkas
Athletic Director, South Fayette School District
Favorite
Costume: I would always
get a sheet, put holes in it and go as a ghost, because that’s
all my parents could afford.
Worst
Candy: I’d say the red candy apples were the best.
The worst were just plain apples.
John
Phoennik
Captain, South Fayette Police
Favorite
Costume: Believe it or
not, my dad was really good at painting faces, so he’d
always paint me and my friends as army soldiers. I must’ve
been 8 or 9 years old, and at that age we were always outside
playing army, so it was perfect.
Worst
Candy: I’m not a big candy eater, so the best thing
to get was money. The worst? An apple or anything healthy.
Joe
Cochran
Dean of Students, South Fayette School District
Favorite
Costume: I guess back then it was a pirate. Other kids
wanted to be police officers and fire fighters; I wanted to be
a pirate. I had the hat, the patch over the eye, everything.
Worst
Candy: The best candy back
then was a taffy apple. People handed out these home-made
taffy apples and they were the best things around. The worst
was a popcorn ball. We wanted that sugar high, and by
comparison the popcorn balls were almost nutritious.
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Game
Night Traditions
