Maple Grove's Only Newspaper of Record—Vol. 1 No. 29—Edited by Mr. Ellison, Town Archivist & Historian
FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK
The Halloween parade stepped off at half past twelve Friday, as it has every year for longer than anyone in the village can say. The whole district walks in it, the elementary school first, then the middle school, then the high school, and it comes down Main Street past every business on it. Every business on it came out to watch: Gordon in his tool belt, Belle in the doorway of the antique shop, the whole Brewed Awakenings crew on the sidewalk. It ended, as it always does, on the town square, where the Halloween festival was waiting.
The ladies' group has retired the cake walk. Last year's cake walk ended in a food fight involving every cake on the table, after which the square had to be hosed down. This year the ladies returned to the ring toss, with Mrs. McGregor, Belle, and Sandy (the church secretary) running the booth. It is a booth the group ran for many years before the cake walk, and one that has never once required a hose. The prizes were spider rings and vampire teeth, as they were for decades, and the children were delighted to have them back.
The ring toss is for students. Mr. John McGregor is not a student. This did not stop him. He was brought through the line by a group of fourth graders, who surrounded him on all sides and informed the volunteer at the front that he was with them. The volunteer at the front was Mrs. McGregor. She let him throw. Belle, beside her, said nothing at the time, and (in her typical good humor) has said a good deal since. He won the vampire teeth on his third ring and wore them for the rest of the afternoon, including while greeting Pastor Elliott. He wore them home. Mrs. McGregor has asked that they be out by church on Sunday.
Charlene, who was banned from running the ladies' group booth after last year, attended this year as a member of the public. She spent most of the afternoon standing slightly behind the ladies at the ring toss, offering Mrs. McGregor, Belle, and Sandy guidance on how the booth might be run. The ladies' group has firm rules about who may run its booth. It has no rules about who may stand behind it. The group is said to be looking into it.
The best line of the afternoon was on the sidewalk outside Brewed Awakenings. For two weeks, Lisa and Brendan have been at work on a Halloween treat for the children: a tiny chocolate cake about the size and shape of a wine cork, with a pumpkin base. This editor is told the recipe went through eleven versions. Lisa reports that the early batches "weren't ready yet," and declined to say how she knew. Brendan reports that he tasted every version personally, several times, including the ones that didn't work, and that this was the hard part. The finished treats are called Double Chocolate Goblin Corks, and the café handed them out to the children as the parade went by. They were gone before the high school reached the café. The children liked them because they were chocolate. Their mothers liked them because they were small and made with pumpkin, and several described them to this editor as healthier. This editor is in no position to argue. With Jenna's approval, Goblin Corks are now on the Brewed Awakenings menu as a seasonal special.
Mildred will spend trick-or-treat, as she does every year, at her corner table in Brewed Awakenings, which has a clear view of the sidewalk. This editor is told she has kept a count of the trick-or-treaters on Main Street every year since she came to Maple Grove. She declined to share the figures. She said only that they are up.
The weather has been mild all week, and there has still been no frost. For the first time in some years, the village's children will go out tonight in costumes as designed, without a snowsuit underneath.
📜 POLICE BLOTTER
MAPLE GROVE POLICE DEPARTMENT—INCIDENT REPORT Reporting Officer: Officer Markle Week of: October 24–30
Birch Lane—Report of a Person in Distress. Reported by Officer Wilson. At approximately 7:15 a.m. Monday, a motorist reported a man slumped in a chair on a front porch who did not appear to be moving and who had not moved, the motorist stated, since the previous Monday. Officer Wilson responded. The man was a scarecrow in a flannel shirt and work boots, holding a coffee mug. The homeowner came out in his robe and confirmed that the scarecrow had been there since the middle of the month and that it was supposed to look like that. Officer Wilson's report notes that it was very well done, and that the mug was a nice touch. Final Disposition: Decoration. No action taken. The motorist has since driven past twice more to look at it.
📋 COMMUNITY NOTICES
Trick-or-Treat—Saturday, October 31, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Main Street and the village neighborhoods. Porch lights on at participating homes. Police Chief Carter will be on Main Street in the department's spare cruiser, his own truck still being at the garage. The crystal Lisa placed on its dashboard last week has been moved to the cruiser. The Chief declined to say who moved it.
Main Street Businesses—Treats for trick-or-treaters, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. The businesses on Main Street will be handing out candy and other treats at their doors. Look for the open door and the light on.
Fall Farmers Market—Saturday, October 31, 9:00 a.m. to noon, the town square. The last market of the season. Tomatoes remain available, against all expectation.
Clocks Back—Sunday, November 1, 2:00 a.m. Daylight saving time ends. Set clocks back one hour Saturday night. The extra hour comes the night after the candy. Parents may plan accordingly.
Leaf Collection—Mondays, through the end of November. To the curb, not into the street.
🏛️ HISTORICAL NOTE
On the morning of November 1, 1948, the merchants of Main Street opened their shops and found that every front window from the bank to the feed store had been soaped. Some had been soaped with words. The Gazette declined to print the words.
At its next meeting, the Village Council took up the matter. The minutes record a long discussion. They do not record who soaped the windows, though they note that "the identity of the persons responsible is generally understood." The Council chose not to pursue anyone. It chose instead to pass an ordinance.
Ordinance No. 49-3, adopted that winter, set the hours for the collection of treats on Halloween at six o'clock to eight o'clock in the evening, limited it to residences with a porch light burning, and required that each child "shall say the words 'trick or treat,' audibly and in full, before receiving." The last clause was added by a councilman whose own front window had been soaped with a word the Gazette declined to print. The minutes record that he felt strongly about it.
Ordinance No. 49-3 has never been repealed. The hours have been moved by later ordinance. The porch light remains. The clause about the words has never been enforced, and Chief Carter has stated that he does not intend to begin. This editor notes only that a number of the village's older residents still wait, bowl in hand, until they hear it. This editor is one of them.
FREE READS—OCTOBER TITLES
Last day for October's list. November's goes up tomorrow.
Browse October’s Free Books →
🍽️ THE MAIN COURSE
Friday's parade, from the school down Main Street to the square? That's the parade. In Maple Grove, it's how Halloween week starts. In Parade of Peril, it's how everything starts going wrong.
That's the week Jenna finds a man she went to school with propped in a field like a scarecrow. Then a second body turns up on a parade float, parked behind her own café. Jenna is going to keep asking questions until she knows who put it there. Joe would like her to stop.
It's Halloween. If you've been saving this one for the right week, you've run out of week. Read it tonight between knocks on the door.
New to Maple Grove? Start at the beginning.
Book 1, Scones, Secrets & Sabotage, is free →
✍️ Behind the Scenes
Still no frost. The garden is hanging on, and it's supposed to stay mild for trick-or-treat. That means no snowsuits under the costumes this year, which around here is practically a holiday of its own.
HayHay's school had its Halloween parade this week. She went as an axolotl. An inflatable axolotl. Somewhere along the way she got her hair caught in the zipper, and in true HayHay fashion, she didn't tell a soul. She just walked the whole parade with her head tipped to one side. When people asked why she was walking like that, she told them she was a dramatic axolotl.
Her principal, who I've known for years, called me afterward. She had spotted the hair sticking out of the zipper, followed HayHay the entire parade route, and got her unzipped as soon as it was over. Nobody ever had to know. Except, now, all of you.
Happy Halloween.
See you next Saturday, fellow sleuths—same town, new trouble.
— Willow 🌿
Meet Willow
Author, School Board member, and gluten-free baker. I write the Jenna McGregor mysteries from my home in Michigan, fueled by coffee and Peloton PRs.
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