In the late 1940s through the mid-1950s, tradition had it that students from Pine Plains Central School were selected to “decorate” various store windows throughout downtown Pine Plains each Halloween. Large, plate-glass display windows were coveted by student artists.
In 1956, a couple of classmates, my twin brother Dave and I, were chosen by 8th grade art teacher Eric Kunitz to team up and “paint” the large showroom window of the Pine Plains Garage, a Ford dealership then owned by Charlie Adams. Our twin drawing prowess had been recognized and we were proud to be on the team which included Peyton White, my trout fishing buddy.
One sunny afternoon, a week or so before Halloween, we all trudged up Church Street to what was then known as the “Ford Garage,” paintbrushes in hand. We had decided to paint a rather unoriginal, but ghoulish, night cemetery scene, complete with bed-sheet ghosts and moonlit talking gravestones. We were going to paint the #1 display window in Pine Plains.
Little did we know that we were about to be “schooled” with an expensive (for the Pine Plains Garage) lesson in physics. However, our sketch had been approved by the school and Charlie Adams himself… even though there was no Ford in our graveyard drawing. So, we eagerly and quickly began our afternoon artistry with a bright October sun warming our backs.
Since we were painting a night scene, we naturally used many dark colors as we liberally applied our paint. Passersby on the sidewalk stopped to ask about and admire our handiwork. The gleaming Ford in the one-car showroom would soon be temporarily obscured by our large Halloween scene.
As I recall, we finished up just in time to catch our buses home. The sun had shone directly on the thick plate glass all afternoon as can be seen from the accompanying sun angle diagram courtesy of today’s modern technology and a smart phone app.
Unfortunately, our dark paint colors absorbed much of the sun’s energy just as a dark roof absorbs heat while a light-colored roof reflects it. As we were packing up, our Halloween dream suddenly became a Halloween nightmare as we were startled by a resounding cracking noise. The loud sound alerted garage employees who came running to see a single large horizontal crack extending across the entire large pane. Since only the lower portion of the window was painted, the warm afternoon sun had expanded the bottom of the window faster than the top. Mortification and chagrin competed for our emotions at that moment.
Epilogue: The window was temporarily secured by metal clips and replaced a day or two later. While we thought our painting was prize-worthy, it hadn’t lasted long enough to be judged. In fact, this incident may well have ended the Pine Plains Halloween window painting tradition.
The “Ford Garage” eventually closed and the building sold. It has been “repurposed” several times since; once as the “Main Street Café”, once as “Peddlar’s” and now as another eatery, the “Spud Shack.” However, it’s “Pine Plains Ford Garage” heritage remains emblazoned on the front of the building, a stark reminder of the “Halloween Horror” mother nature created 67 years ago.
Roger Snyder grew up in Ancramdale on his parents’ Chimney Hill dairy farm, now the site of the Cricket Hill equestrian center. Snyder and his wife, Cyndy, live in Manassas, Va.