October 1, 2020
PUBLISHER’S CORNER
By Eloise Graham
October Reminds Me Of… High School Homecoming… Fire Safety… Halloween
A Facebook friend has recently been posting pictures of the Homecoming Queen and her Attendants from various high school yearbooks “back in the day.” So I have been reminiscing of Friday night football games, pep assemblies, homecoming pep rallies, marching bands, parades and bon fires. Do you have memories of sitting on cold bleachers, wrapped in a blanket and cheering your team to (hopefully) victory?
Photos from my high school year book. Homecoming beauties and a cheer leader at a homecoming pep rally the night before the game. These black and white pictures may be of low quality, but the quality of good memories cannot be surpassed.
I am a former Cub Scout Leader, kindergarten teacher’s aide and elementary Sunday School teacher, so commemorating Fire Safety & Prevention week was part of planning activities in October. We often played a game of Stop, Drop and Roll to underscore the importance of smothering flames, not fanning them.
Fire Prevention Week was established to commemorate the Great Chicago Fire of October 8 and 9 in 1871. Also on those dates the Peshtigo Fire in Northeast Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the Port Huron Fire in Michigan devastated much of the forests and landscape of those two states.
While the Great Chicago Fire is probably the best known, the forest fires of Peshtigo and Port Huron were the most devastating fires up to that time and for many years after. These fires destroyed a total of 3.2 million acres and many cities, towns and villages, killing over 3,000 people.
Halloween is becoming one of the most decorated holidays… seeming to out do Christmas. The origin of costumes and fires dates back to the Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. The carving of jack o’ lanterns ( which didn’t have to be pumpkins, they could be turnips or potatoes) with scary faces began in Ireland and Scotland to be placed in windows and at doors to frighten away wandering evil spirits.
