mickyarber wrote :

Not sure if I have anything worth writing about Halloween.  Never was a big holiday for me.  I more looked forward to the yearly Harvest Festival at school that was always in October. -end quote

I think our elementary school did something similar. Though the students did set up a haunted house, so I suppose it was more attached to Halloween than "Harvest".

Well our harvest festivals always had a haunted house as well.  Our gym also had a stage in it, so they would pull the curtain on the stage, and that's where the haunted house was set up.  In the gym itself was all the games like ring toss, bean bag toss, darts and balloons...stuff like that.  Attached to the gym was the cafeteria where bingo was held for the adults.  Usually 20 games with really good prizes back in those days.  You could also get refreshments there like hot dogs and stuff, and there was always a bake sale going on too.  In addition to the bingo, there would be cake walks as well.  The band room played host to the "disco".  The lights were turned out and black lights were used and there was a DJ spinning music for dancing and stuff.  In the main hallway, there was a general store set up where you could buy old fashioned candy and whatnot.  And throughout the hallways there were displays set to celebrate the harvest season.  Big pumpkins and various fall displays.  

mickyarber wrote :

Well our harvest festivals always had a haunted house as well.  Our gym also had a stage in it, so they would pull the curtain on the stage, and that's where the haunted house was set up.  In the gym itself was all the games like ring toss, bean bag toss, darts and balloons...stuff like that.  Attached to the gym was the cafeteria where bingo was held for the adults.  Usually 20 games with really good prizes back in those days.  You could also get refreshments there like hot dogs and stuff, and there was always a bake sale going on too.  In addition to the bingo, there would be cake walks as well.  The band room played host to the "disco".  The lights were turned out and black lights were used and there was a DJ spinning music for dancing and stuff.  In the main hallway, there was a general store set up where you could buy old fashioned candy and whatnot.  And throughout the hallways there were displays set to celebrate the harvest season.  Big pumpkins and various fall displays.  

It was really a great time every year, and I was just talking with my wife last week about missing stuff like that.  We've been actively searching out the local schools to see if any are doing anything like this.  We really want to take our girls and share that type of great time with them.

Back in those days, that was out schools only fund raiser.  We didn't sell candy, or pizza kits, or anything like that.  That one night a year raised whatever extra funds the school needed.  It was a much simpler time.

-end quote

Agreed. Crazy... much of what you described is exactly how it took place in my elementary school. The stage was often the haunted house, there were goods in the hallway just outside the gym, etc.

My elementary school had a "Fall Festival".  The school would buy a car from the local Nissan dealership that they let students pay to destroy with sledge hammers and cinder blocks right in the middle of the soccer field.  I always wondered if someone would get hurt from the broken glass on the field, but the groundskeepers cleaned it all up.  It was a private school.

Our elementary school still has a costume parade, but it isn't the same. I too miss the days of haunted houses and eating peeled grape eyeballs. 

Ajimbo wrote :

The school would buy a car from the local Nissan dealership that they let students pay to destroy with sledge hammers and cinder blocks right in the middle of the soccer field.
-end quote

Too bad it wasn't the Principal's car that you were allowed to destroy every year.

I'm just trying to picture 10 year olds swinging sledge hammers

Elementary students obviously had help from their parents paying the money and with the destruction.

One thing I didn't like was that students at the festival could buy a "warrant" to arrest you for $5, and they would haul you off to a "jail" until you waited for 30 minutes or paid $10 to get out.  Some kids were sent right back in jail after paying to get out because someone had a warrant with their name on it.

That does sound obnoxious, but then again so does all of it.

How much did you have to pay to beat up the car? Were they working cars and if not why did the dealership still have them?

It was $250 per student to destroy the car.  The cars were brand new because the car dealer and the dealership mascot came to the festival each year to deliver it and try to make some sales.

Believe me, it was obnoxious.  They had a barrel of of prizes, but they only let certain people reach the bottom to get the best stuff.  Everyone else was told to just pick from the top of the barrel.

My favorite thing was the one I actually worked at.  It was a big box shaped like an elephant that could fit a few people and it had a trunk.  People would place tickets in front of the elephant, I would swing the trunk over the ticket, pick it up through the trunk with my arm, and leave a goody bag with those cheap spider rings and candy.