This Friday is Hallowe’en and I expect to see plenty of jack-o’-lanterns on porches and trick-or-treaters in search of candy treats.
Hallowe’en is celebrated by many Canadians, including some of the Mennonites in Essex and Kent Counties. For many, it’s a time of make believe, laughter, and fall treats like candy apples. Some get into mischief. For others, it’s a time for young love. Recently, I had a chance to sit with Jacob A. Epp and listen to his special Hallowe’en story. Click the play buttons below to listen to two clips of Mr. Epp share the story of meeting his future-wife and how they spent one very special Hallowe’en. A transcript is available below each recording.
Do you have a special Hallowe’en memory? Have any plans for this year? Share your story with us in the comments or get in touch via email.
Happy Hallowe’en!
Jacob A. Epp: I was about 14. Second last grade of Sunday school. and in walked somebody with three kids, down the steps. And Those kids, you know they come from a 8-class school in Manitoba. Eight kids in the whole school. You should have seen those kids: [indicates eyes] — like saucers.
That one girl they dropped off at our Sunday school. The other two they took somewhere else.
Well, that was that. The next Sunday you wouldn’t recognize her. She’d been one of us, you know?
When I was 17, I went to Heinz’s. There she was, working in Heinz’s. I was 17. I had two weeks before my 18th birthday. I got 68 cents an hour in Heinz’s for the first two weeks, then I got 77. But, that girl was working there. I recognized her. [laughing] Well, how do you go to approach her, to talk to her? Well, you know the rest. I did. To make a long story short:
It was fall and our church group had a Hallowe’en party or whatever. Well, how am I going to ask her?
You put it off, you put it off, but then the time come. And they were already at the parking lot in the car and I ran over. Wow. And I asked her – but I didn’t know if I asked her, or her sister. [laughing] Her sister did all the talking.
But anyway, I got the instructions and I went to the house and it was the right girl. I picked her up. Four years later we got married on Hallowe’en. And we’re still together. We had our 61st anniversary here, at Hallowe’en time. October 31st.
Jacob A. Epp: We were accused of doing damage and stuff like that, after the party. We went out…you know what kids did. We were accused of that. People seen us. Well, we did not. But they seen us anyway. We drove down that one road where we knew there was a lot of action. We were on the way to Windsor.
Well, I don’t know what else to tell you — but 61 years! Times were not always what you want to call it — money was not plentiful. We had seven kids.
When I talk — I’m always that way [wiping eyes]. Emotional.
I don’t know what else to tell you about our…
[cnast: What did Hallowe’en mean for you growing up?]
Jacob A. Epp: We were always … we had a lot of fun. We did damage and stuff like that. We did dress up and go for parties. We didn’t do no real damage. Things like that. Mischief.
The wife had two uncles and an aunt. And that was — everybody went there all the time. There was a lot of fun going on. All kinds of kids would come there on Hallowe’en, just because they’d get so they’d go driving the car all over in the field and they’d be chasing in the fields with the pitchfork and stuff like that. But I don’t think they’d do no damage. Just pretend.
Thank you Jacob for sharing your story with your community and happy anniversary to you and your wife! There’s more to come from Jacob, including some songs, some stories from his days at school, and from when he worked at Heinz.
If you have a story about Hallowe’en, share it with us it in the comments or get in touch via email.
This interview was recorded on Tuesday September 23, 2014 at the Mennonite Heritage Centre in Leamington, Ontario.
Narrator: Jacob A. Epp
Interviewer: C. Nast
Transcribed by C. Nast
