Halloween at IDC

Last night’s trick or treating sparked some memories about a Halloween celebration at IDC. I am having a hard time figuring out if it was fall of 1974 or 1975. I think it was 1974.

Someone got the idea that we had enough people and enough creativity to dress up as the entire cast of the Wizard of Oz. And I do mean entire. Sure there was Dorothy and Toto and the Lion and the Scarecrow and the Tin Man, but being the IDC we went full bore to cover all of the bases. Someone dressed up as the Yellow Brick Road, someone dressed up as the Twister, down to someone who dressed up as the Horse of a Different Color. I remember my first inkling was running into some folks in the A side laundry room, where people were trying (ultimately successfully) to take a white union suit pair of long underwear and dye them yellow for the lion.

After the full cast was assembled, there a cross campus walk to what was then the Wilbur Cross Library. The old library with the beautiful twin reading rooms with the long brown tables and high ceilings. There was a rush past the security desk and dancing and prancing and singing through sleepy students spending Halloween studying in the Library.  At least they got a smile.

And the night did not finish there. The crew left campus and visited folks in the nearby Mansfield Training School complex. I do remember the crew and the party came back to the IDC, where much jocularity ensued….

I think that this memory has stuck with me because it encapsulates some of the best of IDC. A burst of youthful energy and creativity that exploded over the course of a few hours pulling people from different corners together and expanding the idea exponentially. It was pure fun. It was not to be destructive or mean, it was to laugh, with each other and then to share that hilarity with others on campus and beyond.

Dedicated to our late beloved friend, Jill H., because a horse is a horse, of course, of course.

There is a post in the IDC Facebook group with Norman Landerman and a few others recollations of this night....