Town Bans Shovels in Public on Halloween

Some Nut Mountain residents are outraged the Mayor has decreed a ban on shovels this Halloween. The measure bans all shovels in public places after 5:00 pm October 31, 2011 until noon the next day, thwarting a long-standing tradition of body exhuming on All Hallows' Eve.

"We were all geared up for this year when McElroy peed on our parade," said Erik Mcclenton, owner of Mcclenton's Art Supplies and Aquariums. "He's taking away our right to dig up corpses. It's like living in communist France."

Mcclenton is part of a group that began exhuming graves on Halloween around Nut Mountain in the late 1990s. The annual activity now has dozens of enthusiastic participants of all ages and is considered a town tradition along side Easter Hub Cap Shooting Days and the Nut Mountain Christmas Vomiting Contest. Some argue it's bad for tourism while others claim it was a popular family outing.

"My daughter is only five and she loved coming out with us last year," said Marylou Baney, a forty-five year-old wedding planner. "She loves digging in the dirt with her hands and finding a bone or two." Baney adds that it's a very educational activity for youngsters.

"I had to re-bury my mother last year," said the mayor. "She ain't getting any prettier."

Mostly, the mayor says, the practice is expensive for the town who has to put the bodies back in the ground November 1st., and, he says, digging bodies is not considered sanitary. He points out that decomposing corpses carry "all sorts of bacteria and strange worms."

Mountaineers who have shovels confiscated on Halloween will not have them returned until gardening season in the spring.