The "Tricks or Treats" thing is again upon us. Some older folks dread it; they fear today's youth! (see www.vaguelyexplainedphenomenaloccurrences.com). Growing up, our town's "main drag", Cermak Road, (named after Anton Cermak, a Czech Mayor of Chicago, who was shot and killed during an assassination attempt on the U.S. President, was the youth's Halloween "strip". My Dad started taking me there at maybe age 8 or 9 on Halloween night, he probably interested in seeing what that day's kids were "into", and knowing Halloween had held special interest for him also, years back. Hordes of youngsters as well as adults prowled Cermak Road's wide sidewalks, set before unending storefronts running from the east boundary of Berwyn, Lombard Ave., to it's west extant, Harlem Ave., 2 miles westward. The scene involved "getting back", I guess, at store-owners perceived (rightly or wrongly) to have "gouged" folks with pricing during the year. All in good fun, actually, we never saw any cops, nor violence, save for a few minor argumentative discussions. One year, I conceived a unique idea: load up a then-newly offered plastic water squirt gun with other than water,......but with what? ............Vinegar, of course! Squirt guns were a part of the fun! About 1 out of 10 pranksters carried one. We ran into one of my grade-school classmates, Harold Busse, a "hoodlum in the making" beyond doubt, who demanded I give him a squirt of water in the mouth. I told him, he really didn't want it, he got belligerent, opened his mouth, pointing his finger, so I complied! His reaction upon gurgitating a mouthful of vinegar was one for the record! Recovering, instead of demanding retribution, he commended me on the idea! The biggest deal was, soaping the big plate-glass windows of the businesses. Everyone carried a bar or two of soap. One year, though, I carried a bar of canning Paraffin, sealing wax, the Paro-Wax stuff sold everywhere. One store which I knew was run by with a particularly offensive Manager, I proceeded to utterly wax-over the entire glass entry-doors! The soaped-over windows I imagined would be easily hosed-off the following morning, they needed cleaning anyway, but the waxed windows I pictured as vexing the best attempts at cleaning! Mean little bastard, eh? Trick or treating was yet another different ballgame. The "times" had not yet produced adults of such mentality as to intentionally harm kids with the goodies they gave out. I still do not understand what could motivate folks to intentionally "arm" goodies with needles, poison, razor blades, or other harmful stuff. I always came home with a big bag of wonderful stuff, candy mainly, though a few of our neighbors handed out coins instead of goodies, a treat I especially appreciated! We usually marauded the neighborhood 3 or 4 of us together. One kid, a neighbor of ours, refused to go about with any others. His belief was going alone produced more spoils! The kid was a jerk, two years my senior. I took piano lessons from his mother for a year. The boy could sit down and play entire selections from operas by heart! He went on to become a reknowned heart surgeon, I heard years later. Google his name, maybe: Wayne Janda. Frank
Frank trick or treating finally made it to the shores of the UK from America due to the popularity of the Halloween films. I am not a fan something we did not do in my youth. Today many older folk are forced to buy sweets or give money to the kids knocking the doors. In today's economic climate they can ill afford this and get very anxious. They fear having their houses or cars either egged or defaced in some ways. However, I am not a party pooper and do have a giant sized selection of sweets and goodies by my door.
As I had posted in another thread, trick or treating is already here. It started maybe 10 years ago. In our village though, it's not very popular. But in upscale villages it is already the fashion. We have put up the Halloween decor yesterday and some kids on the block are looking at the colorful pumpkin baskets. However we are in Singapore and will be back on November 1 so we have a poster to that effect. .. trick or treating is a day late.
This year we might buy a bag of some candy that we don't hate too much, since we will probably have to eat it. Last year, no one came to the door and we threw a bunch of candy away, since there's no point in taking in calories from something that we don't even enjoy eating. Just in case someone shows up, we'll probably have something on hand, though.
Our neighborhood watch and news app has a Halloween sign up thingie if you will be giving out candy. You mark your house on the map. I'll buy some candy but I didn't sign up. It's a pain in my butt with Pickles barking, plus having to jump up every 2 minutes. I've only been here for 2 halloweens in 13 years...always went to daughter's house. Sometimes I'd take candy over to my neighbor to hand out for me but not always. Have never been egged or any damage ever so it's Ok if I don't participate. I may just put it outside and let them take some so I don't have to get up all the time. I've done this before too and Nobody took it all at once. I've never done anything mischievous at Halloween as a child.
In recent years, it has become the norm to leave a front porch or other front light on as a sign the residence observes the "treating". Supposedly, the kids are told to ignore places with no light. Interesting idea. @Honey Gee I never thought about the fact you reveal, always imagined the trick or treat idea originated in UK! Thank you for clarifying. Frank
We do not participate in anything halloween anymore. Since we don't eat sugary candy either, we don't want any left over, so we just do not buy it. Back when we did have something for the kids, we usually only had a couple, or often, no one came. So, for the last few years, we just turned off the porch lights, and the house lights so it looks like no one is home. Sometimes, Bobby will put some kind of a barrier at the bottom of the steps, so kids know not to come up on the porch , assuming that any did actually come by. Last year, I was in the hospital with those blood clots in my lungs; so Bobby had to deal with it all by himself. He said that no one came until around 10pm, and then two adult guys--- no costumes or anything--- showed up with big grocery bags, and asking him for candy !
Even when I was giving out candy, I think by 8:00p.m. I turned the lights off. I don't even know when the kids go trick or treating here because the 31st is a Monday and a school night.
When I trick-or-treated, when I was really young, my parents drove me. Later, we walked or rode bicycles to the houses we were stopping at, because houses were a half mile or more apart. Other than a few houses in town, and a couple of businesses, I was related to most of the people whose houses I stopped at. So there were no dangers and no drama. One Halloween, one of my aunts was giving out something that my cousins and I particularly liked, so we decided to see how many times we could stop there. We gathered together as many costumes as we could dig up, mixed and matched them, and sometimes went together, all three of us, other times only two, alone, or together with other groups that went to her door. I don't know how long we actually fooled her or whether she just played along for quite a while.
In the 70's, when my children were young, the threat to kids was just starting in our area. I was a Cub Scout den mother at the time, and up to my ears in youth actives. Many thought me to be a bit over protective, and maybe so. I did whatever it took to keep my children close. On Halloween for about five years running, we put on a Fright Night in our home and two car garage. It got to be a contest in my family to see who could come up with the scariest ideas to decorate the place. We would spend days setting it up. We all played goblins, witches, and anything that we thought would scare even the adults, and there were as many of them as kids. All for one night.
In my early teens, "into" electronics and such, I had learned how to rig a door buzzer to run slow, making a real raucous rattling sound. We had a storm door with glass windows, one large window centered, and I made up a horrible-looking skull-like mask which hung on the inside of the window, looking out, with red light bulbs for eyes, and rigged a photocell across the area in front of the door, so kids never even touched the doorbell button, when the "thing" lit-up, and that horrible noise rattled and shook the door. The older ones took it very well, some going so far as to ring the doorbell. Many younger ones fled in terror! The kids who lived nearby knew me, and were not very shocked, having seen small mushroom clouds from burning powder rising in the back yard now and then.......they knew I was strange, but loved it! Frank