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A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Time now for StoryCorps and a Halloween story we first brought you in 2021. As kids, Fritzi and Bobby Huber spent nine months out of the year traveling the country with their parents, who were circus performers. The family of four lived in a 26-foot-long trailer while they were on the road. And even though costumes were a part of everyday life with the circus, Fritzi and Bobby had never heard of Halloween until one night when they were 6 and 7 and the family stopped their trailer in a remote field.
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FRITZI HUBER: We pull over, as we normally would at the end of the day, and our parents decided that we should go out trick or treating. They gave us two pillowcases, and I put on a cowboy hat.
BOBBY HUBER: I had my favorite blue jean jacket and my cowboy boots.
F HUBER: When they sent us out, we just sort of laughed and went, OK, there's no place to go. It's all farm country. But the trailer had on one end, a front door. And if you went around the other side, there was a back door.
B HUBER: The first thing we did was go around to the back door, when they became, like, a young couple. Then we went to the front door, and they were, like, an old couple.
F HUBER: And all night long, our parents became other people. They would take parts of their costume that they wore in the act. She put on some crazy hat and came to the back door with her teeth blacked out.
B HUBER: Yeah. Each one was a different accent.
F HUBER: I think Dad was French when he had the smoking jacket on. And what did they give us?
B HUBER: Everything out of the cabinet. We had some canned food, apples.
F HUBER: I imagine they were in there just asking each other, well, what else do we have to wear? I'm out of food. What's in the refrigerator? I think they were unhappy that they ran out of things to give us. And finally, we get to the back door, and this very old couple tells us our parents are probably worried. You should go home now.
B HUBER: We went back to the front door, and they were just sitting there, went, how was it? What did you get? So we came in and brought these heavy pillow sack, and they started taking things out. And my mom started putting things in the cabinet and going, oh, this is just what we need.
F HUBER: I was going to have to go shopping. Look, the cabinets...
B HUBER: Now I don't...
F HUBER: ...Are empty.
B HUBER: And that was our first experience of Halloween.
F HUBER: It was a really, really magical experience with our parents.
B HUBER: I loved our growing up, our childhood. We always thought we were wealthy, and we were in a different way. We were millionaires.
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MARTÍNEZ: That was Bobby and Fritzi Huber, who came to StoryCorps in Wilmington, North Carolina. Their conversation is archived at the Library of Congress.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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