 | Faye Graves, a native Wichitan, attended school at Friends and Wichita State, concluding at Midwestern Theological Seminary. He has been active in media for many years with Channel 12, KIRL, KFDI, KOOO AM & FM (Omaha), KFRM & KICT 95, as an owner, manager, producer, director and announcer. He has served as President of the Haysville Board of Education. He has also served on several national boards of the Southern Baptist Convention. Faye currently serves as Executive Pastor and Director of Administration and Education at Immanuel Baptist Church, 1415 S. Topeka, Wichita. You may contact Faye by e-mail fmgraves@amenibc.org, or by phone at (316) 262-1452. |
Nostalgia
2003-10-01 11:56:00
Do you remember?
: What were holidays like in Wichita? Have the ways people celebrated changed?
ANSWER: Since this is October, and Halloween is upon us, I will recall my childhood and teenage years and my remembrances of this time of year. I can recall going downtown to the 5 and 10 cent department stores - Kress, Woolworths, Grant’s, or McClellands. My parents would shop with me for a halloween costume. This was a fun time, deciding what I was going to be like when I dressed up. Then, all of the kids in my class would wear their costumes to school the next day and the teacher would select which one was the best. Usually, it was one that had been concocted in the home, not bought. Trick or treat was always the high point of the day. We would get together with some of the other neighborhood kids and go from house to house and collect our loot. People were so friendly, and the doors were always open. They would invite you in and make over your costume and give you something special. When I was a boy, money was pretty tight and many times, our treat may have been homemade - possibly cookies, candy or maybe an apple or an orange. Whatever, it was given in love and from the heart. It was a great night. We didn’t have to worry about gangs, drive-by shootings, or child molesters. Our parents didn’t even have to go with us on the outing, it was very safe. The theaters would always help make the night a little more ‘scary’ by scheduling a Frankenstein, Mummy or Dracula movie... which by the way, I used to walk to the movies and those pictures made me run all the way home! But, for us it was just fun, we did not attach all the evil to it that has been so evident in these later years. Remember in the 40’s and 50’s there was no television, just radio as far as electronic media. We listened to scary stories with our families in the dark. Children and families had not been exposed to all the bad things that have come to the forefront today. To us, halloween was just a fun night.
