Celebrating Halloween in the old Antelope Valley

One of the most common occurrences during Halloween was the moving of outhouses by teenage boys. When the town was asleep, teenage boys would sneak out and tip over or carry off outhouses and place them smack in the middle of Sierra Highway and Lancaster Boulevard and on top of houses and business buildings anywhere from Date Avenue to the railroad tracks.

One time, however, these lads were not aware that the “town drunk” was fast asleep in an outhouse which they were moving. He later told his friends about a terrible earthquake that occurred on Halloween night, not knowing the truth for quite some time.

These young male pranksters would also uproot picket fences, remove kerosene and gas lamps, unhinge fence gates and remove the wheels of wagons that had been left outside. One time the children even managed to get a horse wagon on top of the main building at the old AV High School. They also enjoyed “borrowing” business signs from the Chamber of Commerce, the newspaper office, the Jazz Candy Shop and others and hanging them on relocated outhouses.

Another time these AV goblins were in the midst of setting up a truckload of alfalfa in the downtown Lancaster intersection when they were caught red-handed by Constable Ed Cummings who made them haul away the hay and stopped their shenanigans.

The AV-Ledger Gazette reported that some boys had wired the newspaper office door with heavy clothesline wire, which they had taken the pain to wrap to the extreme ends. It required over two hours of hard work to undo it, while several of the guilty troublemakers were poking their heads around the corners of the buildings. Yes, the day after Halloween was always a very busy one for business owners trying to restore some order to the community.

Halloween was always a popular time for community celebrations. The schools had evening programs/parties for the little children who

TRADITIONAL APPLE CRISP