Back in the 1960s, Downtown Lorain merchants used to let local school kids paint Halloween pictures on their storefront windows. I’m not sure how long this went on.
Other cities had the same kind of thing. Downtown Elyria had an actual Halloween Window Painting contest sponsored by the Chronicle-Telegram and radio station WEOL. Online newspaper accounts show it taking place from the mid-60s up to around 1969 at least. Norwalk had a similar contest sponsored by the Jaycees.
I participated in Lorain's event while I was a student at Masson Elementary. I remember my pal Jeff and I had the honors in our class of painting our pictures on some window. (It was a graveyard scene with a witch and a Frankenstein monster.) I don’t remember exactly what grade we were in when we did this. I think it was fourth or fifth grade, which would make it either 1968 or 1969.
And it was in the October 29, 1968 Journal that I found the photo below, which shows two fifth graders from Homewood Elementary painting a store window.
I like how the two kids are dressed like they are right out of the movie A Christmas Story.
