Needless to say, Hallowe'en has always been my favorite holiday (as it is Mr. Bradbury's), and autumn by far my favorite time of year. I remember my old elementary school, and that old saying is true: "Everything worthwhile I ever learned I learned in grade school." There I learned to read and write, to love books, to love Beethoven, passions that are with me to this day. That school does not exist any more except in my memory, having been torn down and covered with student housing at WVU. Whenever I have reason to pass the spot I close my eyes tight and look away; if I do not see that Evansdale Elementary School is gone, I can continue to think it is still there. I remember those brilliant Oktober days when our teachers would let us out of class, provide us with leaf rakes, and have us rake up the leaves shed by the large maple trees in the small front yard. We loved doing this, getting out of class and enjoying the wonderful weather and the smell of the dried leaves. Of course, we did not realize we were being used as free child labor lol! In any case, how well I remember the part of the morning that was our music class. We would go to the closet and get our simple instruments--tambourines, drums, and my special favorite, a short painted wooden stick with several round bells hanging from it, and our song books. One of these had special songs for each holiday, and there was of course a song for Hallowe'en. How well I remember the illustration at the top of the page--a witch riding a broom, a cloudy sky, and a full moon. Also a JoL, whose face I carve every year in my own pumpkin. That song drove me crazy for years, because i could remember the first verse and the first two lines of the second, but I had forgotten the rest. I would go online and type in the first two lines of the song: "Hallo-we-e-een, the witch is riding high/Have you see-e-een her shadow in the sky?" and hope I'd get some kind of response from someone else who might remember it, but no luck. I despaired of every finding it again. Then, late last year, I decided to try again, and I found the whole song! I just sat there and stared--I couldn't believe it. Thank the gods for the Internet! Apparently others remembered this song and were also looking for it. So, for your edification, here it is:

Hallo-we-e-een, the witch is riding high,
Have you see-e-een her shadow in the sky?
So beware, don't you dare
To even boast, or a ghost
To your dismay will hear you say that you don't care,
Say a prayer, or it may come and pull your hair.

There's a big black cat a-crossing in our way,
Have you heard that that's bad luck they always say?
Weren't you scared when he stared with eyes a-glow?
(Hear that crow!)
There's a thump near the pump
Let's hurry home, or a gnome
Will thump a lump upon your dome!

Okay, what was all the fuss about? Just a silly little kids' song, but it has haunted me most of my life. Maybe those of you who are of the Boomer generation might remember this ditty because all those school books were pretty much alike. Now that I know the whole song (but not who wrote it, unfortunately), I am going to add it to my Hallowe'en traditions along with Mr. Bradbury's "Tricks! Treats! Gangway to make this special holiday even more special--

It's always a great thrill to solve even part of a childhood puzzle. There are a lot of ex schoolbooks around and I have a complete set of the music books used at my school as well as most of the (much rarer) records. (A class set might consist of over 30 books and only one set of records.)

Try posting here http://forums.abebooks.com/abesleuthcom and you might be able to identify the books your school used. You'll have to say when and where you were in school and describe the books as closely as possible. Good luck!