Halloween Memories

Never a dull moment at our house! Seriously! I was looking through some old Halloween pictures to find some fun ones to post and I came across some that really cracked me up!! Before we started building our current house, Walter & I lived in a townhouse in the LSU area (geaux Tigers!!) that was a mixed neighborhood - college students and professionals. It was a nice, safe area, well, until the Baton Rouge serial killer killed a girl on our street, but that is another post. The problem was that at night, some students would party all night, which is to be expected living in a college area. But the problem was bigger than that. Our house was at the end of the subdivision, but backed up to another subdivision that was ONLY college students. We could look out our bedroom window on ANY night (no, not just weekends!!) and find 100, 200, sometimes 300 drunk college kids in the street right outside!! There was no rest for the weary on those nights and we would call the police to no avail. They would say, "well, if you live in that area....." and I would say, "yeah, but they are UNDERAGE!!" Once in awhile the police would really come and you could watch the kids go inside the houses on the street and hide until the police left, then they would just come back out again. One time, Walter installed a REALLY bright light that shined right at the closest house's driveway where kids congregated. He turned the light on when the partying got too loud and all you could hear was, "OH MY GOD THAT IS A BRIGHT LIGHT!!!! Another time, we threw stink bombs over the fence and tried to stink them out, but they never noticed!!! Once, I called the supervisor of the police department and said PLEASE go check inside the houses when you get to the street because they ARE still there and it was FOUR AM and we'd called several times that night. So, to shut me up, the police showed up, all the kids seemed to drive away, then the policemen went knocking on the doors. Lo and behold, they found HUNDREDS of kids in the houses and they marched them out in single file line down the street and made them leave!! It was great entertainment once you were already awake anyway. By that time, the police started to realize what a problem it was (did I mention that I alerted the juvenile task force that the police were ignoring the problem??) and finally would come and break up the parties, but only after we'd all been up for hours waiting. But, let me show you how this ties to my Halloween memories!!!! The last time we ever had to deal with the noise was during Halloween!!! As usual, each night, there was a lot of commotion outside of our bedroom window (2nd floor, so you have a good view) and I got up to see how bad it was going to be THIS time. I could see a bunch of guys unloading Halloween pumpkins from their trucks at 3am and I pondered this for a bit, then decided that they must have stolen some pumpkins from our area. I called the police and they said that nothing had been reported stolen, so there was nothing they could do. The next night, more commotion, so I looked out the window again, and there were MANY trucks pulling in and unloading pumpkins as well as all kinds of Halloween decorations. I called the police AGAIN and reported this, and was told there was nothing they could do. On the third night, it happened again and I tried one last time. I had already alerted all of my friends in the area to report anything that might be missing, and I asked the police to just COME and see what they have and then you decide if there is anything you can do! So, they did. And they caught truck after truck after truck driving up with stolen pumpkins and Halloween decorations from all over our area. Many of them were arrested and spent a few hours in jail, and were charged for minor crimes. But, the noise STOPPED!! Maybe their mommies and daddies finally came to their senses and brought these inconsiderate children home?!? Here are some pictures!

Oh!! And they made the boys that they actually caught in the act (many got away) haul all those pumpkins back into their trucks and then unload them again at the police station!!! That was fun!! If you look closely at the 2nd picture, you can see where the police were parked at the other end of the street and were STILL catching trucks pulling up with pumpkins!! This was a fraternity stunt to see how many pumpkins they could get. Poor kids who made those decorations and had them stolen!!! But thanks to us, they got them back!! People were able to show up at the police station and claim their decorations, plus decide if they wanted to press charges or not.

So, anyway. It's been a long day and I'm off to chill out and enjoy a fire in the fireplace, although it really isn't that cold!! It was 37 degrees this morning, and that warrants me having a fire tonight!! I was in meetings most of the day and saw a few of my kids. I also went on a tour of the projects in the area where most of my kids live with our truancy officer, so that was pretty cool.

I hope you enjoyed my Halloween tale and have a great night!!