When I was a kid at my house, there was no celebrating Halloween. My parents were convinced it was a devil holiday and that was it. No argument. So while my parents may have bought candy and that was a rarity, for the trick or treaters, we, meaning my kid brother, Jason and I, weren't allowed to dress up or go from door to door to trick or treat. Instead my parents loaded us up in the car and took us to both grandparent's and that was it.
I remember in school after the holiday, kids would bring some of their treats to school and snack on them at recess, leaving me feeling snubbed. Oh well, I had come to accept this as part of my world until I got into second grade.
My second grade teacher was Lurlene Strasner. A very smart woman or at least I thought she was. I heard getting her for a teacher was the best thing; however Wylie Jean Stokes was good also. Of course you know later I had Mrs. Stokes and she influenced my life profoundly even to this day.
Mrs. Strasner was one of those teachers who wanted to really teach, she believed in the rule not to leave one child behind before that rule even existed.
She made learning as much fun as watching the History Channel. She made it fun and educational. I learned more in that class than any other elementary class. She was real good in teaching us history before it became a requirement and fueled my love for the subject after that. She didn't bring out the books and say lets read this, take a test and call it that, not Mrs. Strasner.
Now while most teachers don't think to use the famous day by day chart, called the Calendar, Mrs. Strasner did.
I learned so much about the holidays that I was so unaware that I didn't know much about them until I got her class. When Halloween was fast approaching she began our studies on this wicked and controversial holiday.
I remember how she approached the holiday in question, "Does anybody know anything about All Hallows Eve?" The whole class sat quietly looking at each other waiting for someone anybody in our group to speak up. There was no answer. She then asked, "Does anybody know anything about Halloween?"
All hands came up!
She smiled, "Does anybody know what it means?" Those hands were up again like bingo winners at a bingo game. But the answer that was given was wrong. No it was not a devil worshipping holiday nor was it a holiday for candy.
She explained that Halloween was All Hallows Eve. From there we got a fascinating lesson, about truths, myths, the origin of the holiday and that it was observed around the world. We learned that certain cultures celebrated it differently and some cultures had added traditions and so forth. I told you she was a good teacher.
We read stories that related to Halloween and even watched a small cartoon on the projector called, The Headless Horseman. Our spelling words, even math had to do with Halloween, this went on for a good two weeks.
Now you would think that this would have been it, but it wasn't. Each day we learned something or did a project and I loved the projects we did. They were crafts and let's be honest; if kids can do things with their hands they will learn more. I told you she was ahead of her time.
Well one day Mrs. Strasner had a box of sticks that looked like she made poor Mr. Strasner gather from the yard. They were about a foot long and had several little tiny limbs branched from the larger limb. We all sat at our desk completely excited.
Before we got started she told us to bring out our scissors, glue, and a piece of Manila paper, pencil and ruler, which like good excited kids that's what we did. The very first thing she told us to do was write our name at the bottom of the paper.
She then came around each desk placing one of those little branches in front of us on our manila paper and told us not to play with them. As soon as she got those limbs to each student she came by with these little black pre-made pompoms. They were not real large but not too small either. She again laid one at each desk.
The anticipation was growing.
Then she came by with two little eyes and laid them beside our pompom and then she came by with white yarn. Now she pulled it out of the skein two times explaining that when she pulled it out each time and brought it to the tip of her nose it was roughly a yard. Of course she wanted to know how much she was giving us if she was doing this process twice. Then she would ask you to cut the yarn and place it on your desk.
Do you know how hard it is for a child to sit still with these marvelous things staring at us, not easy, but with Mrs. Strasner she told marvelous stories which entertained us which kept our mind occupied.
Once she was back at the front of the room she explained what we were doing we were making spiders and spider webs. She told us to take out our ruler and measure off so many inches on our yarn. I think it was six inches, I could be wrong. She then came by with a black sharpie and marked it. Math lesson 101 as they say was done. We had to glue the eyes to the pom pom and leave that on the Manila paper.
They would be drying while we did the next step. She told us to take our yarn and wrap it around the little limb we had. She told us to use our imaginations when doing this, but to leave where she marked on our yarn dangling down.
I remember we were so excited we couldn't help but talk to our neighbors with all the excitement. Yes, we still maintained a soft voice even with our neighbors. I must explain this because many teachers who are reading this now wonder; how did she do that?
Well, Mrs. Strasner taught us at the very beginning of the school year about our indoor voice. She explained to us the only time we use that loud voice is if we are in trouble. She pointed out your parents don't yell at the neighbors next door when they are right beside each other, now do they? She was right. I don't remember my parents ever raising their voice to people in public, so why should I, unless as she said you were in pain or in trouble and needed help. We were also rewarded at the end of the week if we had followed this rule and it usually was good.
Now back to my story.
Some of us really got to playing with our yarn and made what we thought was designs of what our spider would weave in the night. Mrs. Strasner went around checking our progress, encouraging those who weren't doing so good and praising those that were moving along fine.
When this step was done she moved to the next which was now glue our spider to the end of the yarn.
By the way this step was easier said than done, but we all glued the best we could then she told us to lay our spiders on the paper at the front of our desk. She would call each of you to carefully take your spiders still on the paper to the book case and lay them on top where she said they were going to get some sunning to dry.
We would forget these little critters until the next day. She told us to go and get our spiders and put them at our desk. We were so excited. We sat at our desk and she told us to bring out a sheet of notebook paper and our pencil and we had to write a short story about our spider in cursive writing. Yes, I had fun writing my story and yes at the end of the day we got our grade on our story and handwriting. Good story idea, but bad handwriting. To this day I still laugh about it. It wouldn't be the only time poor Mrs. Strasner would be working on my handwriting.
We would bring these creatures home and I remember for years I kept that thing until we moved and then lost it. We still however, never got to trick or treat, but I did learn Halloween wasn't a bad holiday all because of Mrs. Strasner.
When I had kids I sort of carried that crafting life with me and the history along with it. Each year I made those same little spiders with my kids, except we would go out together and pick the limb ourselves, bonding time as they say between mother and child. I also remember watching my kids with excitement in their eyes, as mine, when I was a child in school and feeling a little bit like Mrs. Strasner as I watched them make their spiders and spider webs.
A memory from school I carried to my children, who to this day laugh when they remember getting to make Halloween spiders for many years.
Books by Carla Landreth
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