Voices of Bellevue: John Sears | Heritage Corner

Published 11:33 am Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Eastside Heritage Center’s oral history collection contains over 200 interviews. In the following excerpt from his 1997 oral history (edited for clarity) John Sears remembers what it was like to celebrate Halloween in Bellevue in the 1920s.

Interviewer: How did you celebrate Halloween? Did you trick or treat?

John: Well, it wasn’t so much the treat then, it was just trick. That treat stuff didn’t come until after the Second World War, I don’t believe. I never heard of it until after that.

You know, the guys would just do funny things. Like they used to have a community clubhouse up there in Bellevue, and one time a young guy – I wasn’t part of this, this was before my time – they dismantled an old buggy and put it together on top of the clubhouse.

Interviewer: I think that was Bob Henning’s father’s wagon. I’m not sure. [laughter] I’ll have to ask Bob about that. My father also denied that he had anything to do with it. Those two were probably hiding behind a tree.

John: Yeah! That was too far away for me. We had to do our own thing around here (in Beaux Arts).

Interviewer: So you never knocked on doors or …?

John: No, we didn’t do that. That was the treat part.

Interviewer: Do you remember getting a costume?

John: I don’t remember a costume, but one time they had a thing called Fall Frolic over in the old clubhouse,where the guys put the wagon on the roof. They had all different kinds of activities. And I remember they had this deal where I was the rear end of a horse.

To learn more about Bellevue and Eastside history, contact the Eastside Heritage Center at 425-450-1049 or visit www.EastsideHeritageCenter.org.