Ontario Historical Newsletter Volume 5 2015-2

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www.heritagesquaremuseum.org
Vol 5 2015
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Ontario’s Halloween Celebrations
By Liz Albright, Ontario Town Historian
Haunted Hayride at Casey Park
Halloween Parade at Ontario Primary School
Many children and adults have recently celebrated the popular fall holiday of Halloween. As
you are putting away your decorations and costumes and finishing the last of your “trick or treat”
candy, perhaps you are wondering how this tradition got started.
There seems to be many versions of how we came to celebrate Halloween. The word
“Halloween” actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. Hallow E’en means All Hallows
Eve or the night before All Hallows or All Saints Day – a day to honor all the Saints in heaven.
But it is believed that the origins of the day actually go back to the 5 century BC to the Celts in
Ireland, Scotland and France whose year officially ended on October 31. Their holiday was
called Samhain (pronounced sow-in) which means “end of summer”. Celts were pagans who
practiced a religion based on gods of nature.
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There seems to be many customs, rituals and folk tales associated with this pagan celebration.
One story tells of the spirits of all who died during the year coming back to earth on Samhain
searching for living bodies to possess for the coming year. It is said that the still living, naturally
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not wanting to be possessed, would dress up in ghoulish costumes and noisily parade around the
neighborhood,
being as destructive as possible, in order to frighten away the spirits. Perhaps that is where our
custom of wearing masks and costumes came from.
The Celts also believed that faeries ran free on the Samhain. Faeries liked rewarding good deeds
and did not like to be crossed. And on Samhain, the faeries would disguise themselves as
beggars and go door to door asking for handouts. Those who gave them food were rewarded.
Those who slammed the door tended to experience some unpleasantness. This is one
explanation for the origins of our Halloween “Trick or Treat” custom.
The Roman feast day that took place in October honoring Pomona, the goddess of fruit and trees,
was thought to be an assimilation of the Celtic celebration of Samhain. Because the apple was
the symbol for the goddess Pomona, it is possible that our Halloween tradition of bobbing for
apples came from this celebration.
The custom of Halloween was probably brought to America in the 1840s by the many thousands
of Irish immigrants fleeing their country’s potato famine. The Jack-o-Lantern custom probably
comes from Irish folklore. As the story goes, a man named Jack, who was notorious as a
drunkard and trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an image of a cross
in the tree’s trunk, trapping the devil up the tree. Jack made a deal with the devil that, if he
would never tempt him again, he would promise to let him down the tree.
According to the folk tale, after Jack died, he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil
ways, but he was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked the devil. Instead, the devil
gave him a single ember to light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was placed
inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing longer.
The Irish used turnips as their “Jack’s lantern” originally. But when the immigrants came to
America, they found that pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips. So the Jack-o-Lantern
in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin lit with an ember.
So how has Halloween been celebrated in Ontario over the years? In the “History of Ontario
1807-1993”, Ruth Turner Sheahen remembers discovering a hole in the side of her house the
morning after one Halloween around 1918. “Some teenagers put it there when a wagon they
were pushing up the street got away from them and the tongue of the wagon went right through
the clapboards. Their parents paid to have the hole fixed. It was always exciting on the morning
after Halloween to see what had happened. Buggies and wagons on roofs were not unusual and
one could always count any number of outhouses tipped over. The story is told that
inadvertently one was capsized while occupied.”
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Mary Fioco Hanson remembered in the 1930s that her father did not allow her to go out on
Halloween because of all the mischief. He didn’t want her getting into trouble. She remembers a
wagon put on top of the District 13 Schoolhouse on Furnace Road, soaped windows, knocked
over cornstalks and unrolled toilet paper.
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Bob Biviano, in his reminiscences of growing up on Main Street, Ontario, in the 1940s,
remembers always buying his Ivory [for soaping windows] from the Market Basket. It was a
Halloween tradition. “When we were younger, we planned for weeks deciding what costumes
we could make. A regular stop on the Trick or Treat rounds was the Sheahen house on Main
Street near Knickerbocker Road (we used to call it Mill Street). Mr. Sheahen greeted us at the
door with alarm and sheepishly invited us in. We were taken to the kitchen and the cider and
doughnuts. Before the treats were given, Mr. and Mrs. Sheahen tried to guess our real identify.
They made it a real occasion. We complained at the valuable time lost, but deep down we loved
it.”
Lori Eaton Smith and her sister Lee Stramonine shared stories of their Halloween memories from
the 1960s and ‘70s. They set up their front porch for trick or treaters with an old couch and chair
and had scary music playing. “Our brother, who is about 6’3” was all made up like
Frankenstein, lying on the couch, covered in a blanket. When the little kids came up to the front
door, our brother sat up slowly, and got up and chased them. The little kids ran screaming all the
way back to their car. Needless to say, our Mom got a very angry call the next day and Mom
was not nearly as impressed with our creativity as we were. We all had to go apologize the next
day.”
Lee Stramonine remembers hosting Halloween parties for her children in the 1980s and ‘90s.
Their whole house became a Haunted House. “Each room would have different characters and
set ups designed to frighten the guests. The ‘hot tub’ room became the home of the crypt keeper
featuring green fog coming out of the hot tub in a darkly lit room with the crypt keeper coming
out from behind a door. The bathroom was a scene out of ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ with a
‘body’ in the tub. And there was a peacefully sleeping man on the bed who would raise up as he
was awoken, only to leave his head on the pillow. Before they could leave, the guests passed a
‘talking head’ on a platter and had to get their candy from a bucket that would reach out and grab
whoever put their hand in.”
Many Halloween parties were held over the years in Ontario. In 1955 the Masons and the
members of the Eastern Star hosted a party at the Masonic Lodge for 11 and 12 year olds. In
1975, the Ontario Historical Society staged a Haunted House at the Ontario Community Center
on Ridge Road for the young and the young at heart. Price of admission was 10 cents for
children and 25 cents for adults.
In 1984, the Presenters showed four of the early silent films – “Phantom of the Opera”,
“Dracula”, “Haunted Spooks”, and “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” – from Ralph Donald’s extensive
collection. Viewers were encouraged to come in costume and to enjoy the popcorn and soft
drinks.
Perhaps you remember the “Haunted Hay Ride” held for about ten years at Casey Park. Many of
the scenes were adapted from the Stramonine’s earlier Halloween Haunted House.
Another fond memory for many is the Halloween Parade through the halls at the Ontario Primary
School.
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So as you look back on Halloween this year, take a moment to reminisce on Halloweens past and
just be grateful that you didn’t wake up the next morning to find your outhouse tipped over!
Final Fall Barn Sale Tops Goal
We did very well on our September barn sale, bringing in over $2200. However, if it had not been for
Thelma Russell's generous donation from her household sale (Thank you Vera and Jim Graves for
hauling all those boxes from Thelma's to the barn), and a unique separate donation of over fifty like new
puzzles, the tables and shelves would have looked rather bare. The short interval between the May and
September sales make it difficult to collect enough donations in time for the sale. In addition, we cannot
use the barn for other activities from mid-August to mid-September, and weekend tours cannot take full
advantage of the exhibits in the barn. Another drawback is that the fall school tours must wait until the
barn sale is over, as children frequently stay for lunch, and need the barn space, especially if it is raining.
For all these reasons, we have decided to just have one barn sale a year, in May. We can start collecting
now, and continue through the winter. So if you're downsizing, cleaning out before heading south, or are
just inspired by the brisk weather to get organized, please call Ann Welker at 315-524-9330, or
email frwelker@aol.com to set up a convenient time to drop your treasures off at the barn.
Fall Bake Sale Update
Many thanks to our wonderful bakers who provided us with many delicious and unique goodies for the
Fall Bake Sale. A big thank you, also, to those members who made telephone call reminders: Barbara
Boyce, Marian Mazura, Kate Alessi, Carolyn Rittenhouse, Carol Boughton and Pat Codding. Thanks to all
of you, we raised over $430 for the Historical Society.
“Letters from the Civil War” is the program for the November Town of
Ontario Historical and Landmark Preservation Society’s Potluck
Dinner and General Membership Meeting
The next Town of Ontario Historical and Landmark Preservation Society’s potluck dinner (Bring your own
place setting, coffee and tea will be provided.) and the general membership meeting will be held at the
North Ontario United Methodist Church (“Brick Church”), 7200 Ontario Center Rd., Ontario, NY on
Wednesday, November 18th, at 6:00 PM.
The program starts at 7:00 PM and will feature Sodus Point Historian Bruce Farrington presenting his
“Sodus Center Civil War Letters”. The Civil War Letters are an assortment of letters written to and from
folks in Sodus Center, New York. The Letters are dated from January 1861 to April 1865. These letters
are written from ordinary, rural folks living through an extraordinary time in our country’s history. They
give a different and somewhat surprising perspective of life in our area during the Civil War and a feeling
of what it actually was like – a feeling that is not captured in most historical accounts. After the program
there will be a general membership meeting.
*The public is welcome to attend both the dinner, program and the general meeting.
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Ponies Take the Field at Heritage Square October 3rd
Although perhaps a bit perplexed by the white cross-hatching on their pasture, Molly and Lily, ponies from
the Little Dude Ranch, settled right in and began chowing down on the fresh, green grass. After about an
hour and a half, first and second prizes were deposited within minutes of each other, and the
ponies awaited their next task: giving gentle rides to children.
First prize of $200 was won by Marilyn Benedict of Ontario. Second prize of $100 went to Kathy Ross
of Williamson. Thanks to all the members, family and friends who participated in the contest. We cleared
nearly $1200 on the event. Thanks also to Neysha Parulski of the Little Dude Ranch in Marion for
bringing Molly and Lily to entertain us. Last but not least, thanks to the Ontario Highway Department
for efficiently putting up and taking down the Pony Bingo fence.
Jim and Pat Coddings grandson (Garrett), riding the pony from The Little Dude Ranch.
Ontario Historical Society gives $100 Student Volunteerism Award to Zach Miller
Zach has been a volunteer at the Ontario Historic Society for several years. He started helping at Barn
Sales and has since been involved volunteering for seasonal festivals, weekend tours and
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whenever/wherever he is needed. Volunteering has been a large part of Zach's youth. In addition to his
work at Heritage Square, Zach has volunteered at The Pines of Peace, Wayne Central High School as a
tutor in Spanish, and Ontario Volunteer Emergency Squad where he recently received his EMT-B
certification.
Zach left Ontario in August to pursue his lifelong passion of Naval Architecture at SUNY Maritime College
in The Bronx. He will spend four years at the university and graduate with a Bachelors of Engineering in
Naval Architecture, as well as a U.S. Coast Guard Third Mates license.
Zach is extremely grateful for the monetary award received from the Ontario Historical Society. He has
made many a friend, enhanced his knowledge in Ontario's history, and was provided with many good
memories. Congratulate Zach when you see him.
ZachMiller
Notes from a Newbie by Marguerite Manning
When Vera Graves called me six months ago to ask if I would accept nomination as secretary of the
Board of Directors of Ontario Historical and Landmark Preservation Society, I said I'd try if for a year - and
have now attended several meetings and a couple of weekend activities at Heritage Square. Let me
share a few of my observations!!
The people who keep Heritage Square going are few in number but mighty in enthusiasm and dedication!
HOURS are spent on a myriad of details, including
building and grounds cleaning and maintenance
planning, setting up, organizing, and cleaning up special weekend events
hosting tours for school groups and other groups (often in period costume!)
gathering, writing, editing, printing, distributing the quarterly newsletter
overseeing opening, closing, calendar of events, financials, gift shop, bake sales
All of these activities require lots of people-power. It is amazing to feel the commitment and caring the
Board members give to Ontario's "hidden gem". Volunteer opportunities are available in any of the above
areas. And this Newbie, who is still trying to learn all that is done in/with/for/to/around Heritage Square, is
glad she said YES to Vera!
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Proud Supporters
of the Heritage Square Museum
and the Town of Ontario Historical Society
We would like to publicly acknowledge and thank the following businesses who have joined in supporting
the Society and Heritage Square Museum. Please patronize them whenever possible.
Alfred Pardi, Architect
465 Ontario Dr.
Tel. 315-524-7651
Concord Insurance Agency
6270 Dean Parkway
Tel. 585-265-6060
Crown Electric Supply Co.
75 Route 104
Tel. 585-265-2480
Dennis Dey Plumbing & Heating
7204 North Slocum Rd. Tel. 315-524-3646
Don & Jon Lawn & Tree Service
P. O. Box 5
Tel. 585-737-9891
Exelon Generation – Ginna Plant
1503 Lake Rd.
Tel. 585-771-5220
Furguson’s Hair Care
2005 Ridge Rd.
Tel. 315-524-8983
Gilson & Tobin DDS
6200 Slocum Rd.
Tel. 315-524-7433
Integrity Tool, Inc.
6485 Furnace Rd.
Tel. 315-524-4409
Joe Bishop Auto Sales, Inc.
1453 Route 104
Tel. 585-705-0964
Joe’s Meat Market
6845 North Slocum Rd. Tel. 315-524-8252
Kunzer Electric Inc.
1006 Willits Rd.
Tel. 315-524-9814
Konstantinou’s Liquor LLC
2024 Route 104
Tel. 315-524-3015
Konstantinou’s Restaurant
2030 Route 104
Tel. 315-524-8238
Lakeside Restaurant
6270 Lakeside Rd.
Tel. 315-524-3092
Lakeside Roofing & Siding Materials Inc. 6296 Lakeside Rd.
Tel. 315-524-9420
Lyons National Bank
6256 Furnace Rd.
Tel. 315-524-9661
Mama Lor’s Union Hill Café
1891 Ridge Rd.
Tel. 585-545-4895
Murphy’s Funeral & Cremation Chapels PO Box 426
1961 Ridge Rd.
Tel. 315-524-4621
Phil’s Automotive of Route 104, Inc.
1364 Route 104
Tel. 315-524-8129
Sparky’s Cans & Bottles
631 Ontario Center Rd. Tel. 315-524-2267
Sue’s Hair Trends
2015 Ridge Rd.
Tel. 315-524-2766
The Original Door Store
1712 Route 104
Tel. 315-524-3776
Wilberts Lakeside
6333 Lakeside Rd.
Tel. 315-524-8800
Board of Directors
President Jim Switzer
585-750-2277 jeswitz@rochester.rr.com
Vice-President Ann Welker
315-524-9330 frwelker@aol.com
Secretary Marguerite Manning 585-265-1825 Toothorn39@gmail.com
Treasurer Ed Kushall
315-333-5228 edkushall@juno.com
Trustee Bill Slocum
315-524-4841 bgkslo@aol.com
Trustee Jim Codding
315-524-7837 jcodding@rochester.rr.com
Trustee Alayna DiSanto
315-589-9884 disantoaa@gmail.com
Trustee Billie Lochner
585-265-3863 lochbb6952@frontier.com
Trustee Judy Lynd
585-271-4925 jslynd@aol.com
Trustee George Mandery
585-550-6662
Town Historian Liz Albright
315-524-2942 ext. 703
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Editor Gerri Sweet
315-524-9127 historian@ontariotown.org
585-576-0759 dsweet@rochester.rr.com
PleaseplantojoinusforaPotluckSupper:
Followedby“LettersfromtheCivilWar”
GuestSpeakerisBruceFarrington,Sodus
PointHistorian,Wednesday,November18that
6:00PM,“BrickChurch”,7200OntarioCenter
Road,Ontario,NY.
TOWN OF ONTARIO HISTORICAL &
LANDMARK PRESERVATION SOCIETY
P.O. Box 462
Ontario, N.Y. 14519-0462
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