Students, staff remember holiday

By Jamie Teibel
Senior Writer

There's a ghost, Papa Smurf, a devil, the Karate Kid, a bee and a witch. No, it's not outside of Pete's before breakfast club. You're 10 years old and trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.

While most don't remember what costumes they donned for the scary holiday, many reminisce with excitement and fond memories.

Purdue President Martin Jischke said, "I was many things; a hobo, a football player, a baseball player and once I was a ghoul. I think I enjoyed all of them. My best memories were of the candy. I would go out with a huge shopping bag and come back with it full."

He said he was always a good trick-or-treater, never playing tricks, only gathering treats.

Purdue football player Stuart Schweigert said he was good, too, but once got blamed for his friends' tricks.

"I remember one time I went to a house that my buddies had already been to and smashed the pumpkins. The old lady yelled at us because she thought we did it."

He also remembers a time when tricks were played on him.

Schweigert said he and his friend were walking to a house for candy and got chased by older kids who wanted their bags of goodies.

"I ran to my house and locked the door. I was so scared they were gonna take my candy," he said with a childish giggle.

He recalls being a football player, a clown and Freddy Krueger, but what he really wanted to be, but never did, was Gumby.

Photo courtesy of Tom Turpin AHH SHUCKS: Entomology professor Tom Turpin in his corn shuck costume in 1953. He won first prize in a costume contest for his vegetable creation.

Entomology professor Tom Turpin said his favorite costume was a "riley character," the kid running away from home with a fishing pole in one hand and a handkerchief hanging from a stick in the other.

"I always had that stuff and I always liked the idea of running away from home."

"No, I was never a bug," said Turpin.

He grew up on a farm in Kansas, so naturally, he was a corn shuck.

"I cut the corn and leaned it up against each other into a pyramid. Then I wired the stalks together. I had a rat peeking out on one side. I thought it was really clever."

West Lafayette Mayor Sonya Margerum kept her Halloween costume simple.

She was usually a ghost and went around her Iowa hometown soaping houses and cars, activities she said, "weren't looked upon favorably."

Brenda Shea, student body president, remembers her sixth-grade clown costume.

"I went all out. I had big hoop pants, and those huge clown shoes that were plastic," said Shea, a senior in the School of Liberal Arts. I also remember in fourth grade, I made a Hershey's kiss costume out of tinfoil. I was pretty proud of it."

She said she looked forward to Halloween in elementary school because of the all-day parties.

David Pflum, a senior in the School of Health Sciences and Purdue's new Homecoming king, remembers being a red Crayola crayon when he was 4.

"It was awesome. My mom made it for me. She always made sure we looked good for Halloween," he said. He also recalls dressing up as a pirate, wearing a gondolier shirt his grandma brought him from Venice.

 

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