A Halloween to Remember

Born on the day before Halloween, I seem forever connected to that holiday. Anne and I married early in 1980 and decided to host a Halloween party that year. Halloween was on a Friday, but we planned the big bash for Saturday.

Not all of our guests got the message as three revelers showed up for the party Friday night. Jakob, an Israeli expatriate that was doing stonework around our house for us, came as a cowboy. Nancy, a geologist, dressed, strangely enough, as an Indian princess, soon followed. John, a fellow geologist, showed up a little later, his only costume a mask.

Nonplussed, Anne and I broke out the alcohol. There was a championship-boxing match on television that night - Oklahoma City's own Sean O'Grady versus James Watt, a Scottish boxer. The fight took place in Glasgow, Scotland and to say that there was a bit of home cooking going on is but a mild statement. After a few rounds Watt head-butted Sean resulting in a horrible cut over his eye. Watt disserved disqualification and O'Grady the title. Instead, the local judges ruled the cut caused by a punch rather than a head-butt.

Those days there was no rule about excessive bleeding. To say that there was a little blood strewn around the ring would be a true understatement. The ring looked more like the inside of a working slaughterhouse, all the viewers, including myself, in shock. The ref soon called the fight and proclaimed Watt the world champion.

We went on to drink, carouse and to celebrate into the wee hours, neither Anne nor I in much shape for the real party that continued as planned the next day. As it happened, the first Halloween party I ever hosted, an unscheduled party became the one I remember the most.

Gondwana