Memory Lane: Halloween Windows

Back when New Brunswick, N.J., was a thriving, busy, blue-collar city with a downtown shopping district that attracted folks from miles around, the merchants used to celebrate Halloween by having their shop windows painted for the occasion. They don’t do it anymore. New Brunswick is still our county seat, but badly in need of re-upholstering.

But back then it was a shoppers’ mecca; and every Halloween, my father used to bundle us kids into the car and take us to New Brunswick to see the painted windows.

This was just great; I remember it well. The colors were so vivid, and some of the scenes were deliciously scary. I remember one painting of some trees coming to life and reaching out to seize a hapless human. I wonder now if the whole thing was a contest, with prizes and kudos for the winners.

Somewhere this delightful custom still exists, or I wouldn’t have been able to find a photo to illustrate it. We just don’t have it around here anymore, and that’s a loss for us. It died out before I was old enough to try my hand at window-painting. What fun it must have been! It was certainly fun, tooling around the city and enjoying the pictures.