Bill Matteson
Uptown Chicago History Correspondent
Now as a kid I wasn't stupid, but I sure did my share of dumb things
right after the war , Surplus stores opened up and I couldn't wait to buy a parachute,
Now just about every kid my age needed a parachute, but most of them wouldn't admit it,
So I bought one from the surplus store on Broadway just North of Montrose for Fifty cents, it was bright yellow and came in a canvas backpack
it was originally designed to drop supplies to the troops,
I couldn't wait to get home and open it up, it was a little bigger than I thought, so I repacked it, put in on my back and climbed up on the garage roof
which was only a maximum of 15 feet off the ground, but as a kid it looked high enough, so I spread out the chute on the roof and jumped off, I landed hard on the ground and the chute was still on the roof top, I didn't allow for the 20 feet of shroud line, I had my tongue in between my teeth and when I smacked the ground my chin hit my knee and I almost bit it off, It bled a lot and I had to keep the injury hidden from My parents. I mumbled for a few days
So I packed the chute away until the following Halloween.
One of my favorite Saturday Afternoon movie serials was "The Scarlet Horseman" so I decided to cut up the parachute and make my costume
out of this bright yellow Material, I made a hood, mask, shirt and pants, I am not a particularly gifted tailor, but for my purpose, it was good enough
In those days, if you needed a costume you made it.
On Halloween, Stewart School always took pictures of the class,
I wore it to school, the teacher asked who I was, so I told her and the class, I was the Scarlet Horseman, she started laughing, they all started laughing.
all Serials were B&W and I had no idea that Scarlet was a color.
when I got home I told Mom and Dad asked me how my day went, so I told them, they laughed too, so did my little sister.
I guess I was the Scarlet Faced Horseman
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