What’s the best part of Halloween? The candy? The costumes? Some might say it’s the Lower School Halloween Parade. On Monday, October 31, the annual event once again took over the Lower/Middle School Campus as the pre-k through fifth-grade students marched around Kennerly Field. Parents, students, and teachers delighted in the myriad costumes, from fast food to superheroes to presidential candidates. While the middle schoolers didn’t get to participate in the parade, they did get to watch it. They were also able to come to school in costume that day in honor of Halloween.

As is tradition, the parade began with Head of School Mr. Robert Goldberg, this year dressed as a Florida tourist complete with Hawaiian shirt, khaki shorts, and an alligator-shaped pool float, riding alongside Head of Lower School Dr. Kristen Sheehan (dressed as a witch) who drove the golf cart to lead the parade.

The parade has been around for many years, and several of the students and even parents watching this year’s parade were once children who participated in this fun event. In fact, every year the 14-Year Club, a group of seniors who have been at Benjamin since pre-k, go around the field with the lower school students, reminiscing about their days as little kids. Amongst the seniors who marched around the field this year were Austin Michels; Katie, Chris, and Joey O’Connor; Bella Gaeta; and Kelly O’Leary just to name a few. All of the middle school teachers were trying to recognize the much-changed seniors, but most found it difficult to recognize the faces they once knew in Lower or Middle School.

That got us at The Neersyde thinking that in the not-so-distant future, the current lower school students will fondly look back on their Halloween memories. So what did present middle school students look like when they were marching in the Halloween parade in years past? The Neersyde, being the in-depth newspaper that it is, looked through all of its archives and found some hidden gems from the past – older photos of current middle school students in the parade.

“The first [Halloween parade], when I first moved down here [in second grade], I didn’t really know what it was,” said current seventh grader Ainsley

Mitchell. “I realized that it was fun because I got to walk around the field, and everyone got to see my costume. Watching it this year reminded me of my first time doing it, and how much fun it was.”

“I’ve been here since pre-k, so I’ve done the Halloween parade every year,” added eighth grader Alex Kahn. “It was really fun because we got to dress

up, and it was really fun to see what everyone else dressed up as. I do not have any specific memories about the parade, but I remember looking forward to it every year.”

In learning about some of our students’ memories from the parade, there was one person this year from whom we didn’t get to hear: The Benjamin School Co-Founder Mrs. Nancy Benjamin. Not only did she love Halloween, but she made sure to dress up every year for the parade, a tradition which she cherished. Mrs. B passed away a year ago, leaving a huge void in the Benjamin community. Every Halloween we will remember her great love for the holiday, and the joy she found in participating with the lower school students and teachers.