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“There is magic in the night when pumpkins glow by moonlight.” Unknown
Last night was Halloween. Some people have fun on Halloween. Others don’t like the night at all. These days it’s mostly a fun night for kids to dress up in a wide assortment of costumes and go out on their streets to collect a little candy. Or maybe it’s a night when you have a little party for the kids at church. That’s something our little church has done for years and years, long before I became a member there. They bobbed for apples, did relay race games where they carried eggs in spoons or perhaps a cotton ball. They had costume contests and chili and hot dogs to eat. Sometimes they went on hayrides.
At times even the grownups would come in costume. I remember once someone showed up dressed like an old man with a mask that covered all his or her face. The person wouldn’t talk and nobody, absolutely none of us, had any idea who it was until the unmasking time. She was one of the older members and she had all of us smiling because nobody thought about her being the one to dress up like that. About the best I ever did dressing up was wear all black one year with red yellow and green circles pinned on to be a stoplight. I thought it was clever, but nobody else was very impressed. LOL.
Last night, the moon was full and lit up the night for the trick or treaters. Back when I was a kid, Halloween was often more a time for tricks than treats. The boys in the neighborhood would be out for mischief, and my dad was an unhappy farmer. We lived off the road, down a windy driveway, but we could see the gate to the county road at the top of the far hill. Dad kept his eye on that gate because he had cows that were ready to wander out of the field if the gate got left open. He had reason to watch. Once some up to no good kids took the gate off its hinges and took it out to the schoolhouse about a mile away and put it up in front of the door into the school. My father was not happy when he had to go retrieve his gate and hang it back on the gate posts. He never admitted to doing any tricks like that when he was a boy, but it could be he just didn’t want us to know about mischief he’d gotten in when he was young. (The stolen gate is the reason for the gate picture on the post.)
My father-in-law told about a group of boys in his young days that took apart a farmer’s wagon, hoisted the pieces up on top of the barn roof and somehow managed to put it back together. Now that took some time and energy. But pity the poor farmer when he got up the next morning to see his wagon sitting on top of his barn. I’m sure he was about as happy as my dad fetching his gate home when he had to figure out how to get his wagon back to earth.
Then, once when my kids were young, I loaded them up along with my nieces and we went out to the church party that was held on Halloween night that year. For some reason my husband was busy and hadn’t gone with us. One the way home along the dark, lonesome country road to take them home, I came up on a two foot fence of rocks built across the road. After impressing on the kids to stay in the car, I had little choice but to get out in the black of the night and move those rocks out of the way. I admit to being a little nervous as I started hauling rocks off the roadway and a teenage boy appeared out of the shadows. I’m sure he was one of the builders of that rock barrier but he just started helping me. He must have felt guilty seeing me out there with four little kids in my car having to move rocks.
I don’t know if kids still like to play those kinds of tricks these days. I don’t hear about them in our county if they do. Maybe there aren’t as many farmers to irritate. Maybe mischief goes on I don’t know about. Not sure anybody would want to waste toilet paper this year decorating up someone’s yard, but I’m sure it does still happen.
Trick or treating may seem like a modern event, but you can trace its roots back to Celtic Britain and Ireland in the 9th century. However, the term trick or treating wasn’t used until the 1920s, when it was adopted in America. These days kids would be surprised if they were told to supply a trick instead of getting a treat. My sister had that happen once when she and a friend went a a neighbor’s house trick or treating. The neighbor told them trick just to see what they would do and then went inside to get their treats. The girls were surprised but ended up turning the front porch chairs upside down and taking off before the neighbor got back to the door with her treats. They found out later that she was disappointed that they ran off before she could give them a treat. So I guess, in a way, they all got tricked.
Have you ever gone trick or treating? Done any mischief making tricking? Or had others trick you on Halloween?
Comments 11
When I was a kid, we went out “raiding” the night before Halloween. Mostly threw shelled corn at people’s doors to make them rattle. And made a lot of what we thought was spooky noise. We’d spent the earlier part of the day shelling the corn.
I remember one particular night when we were actually shot at by an angry farmer. We were later chased through a cornfield. The chaser in the cornfield turned out to be my dad. haha He wasn’t the one who shot at us though.
We’d raid the night before and then go collect candy from the same houses.
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My dad was sometimes ready to fire his gun up in the air at the boys bothering his gate, but Mom managed to talk him out of it. Did your dad know it was you that he was chasing, Lee? I’ve never heard that trick about throwing corn at doors. I don’t think anybody ever did that around here. Egging a house or car and toilet papering a tree were the local tricks.
A lady at church tells about her father hiding out on their lane one night with a sheet for a ghost costume. The two sisters were out later than they were supposed to be or something. I think he nearly scared them silly. LOL.
My friends and I never did any tricks; we much preferred the candy. This year we only had two children come to our door whereas we usually have at least 40 or more. I love that churches now usually have some kind of harvest party, which is fun for the children and provides their candy in a safe environment.
Author
I agree, Suzanne, although this year most of the churches here didn’t have their usual trunk and treats due to the Covid virus problems. But our little church always had fun with a fall party chili supper. Maybe next year we can get back to more normal. At least I hope and pray so.
I had one Halloween where my friends played a trick on me. They came to my house to see if I could go out with them but I was away with my parents. When we got home they had soaped the house windows and threw corn around and into the swimming pool, which fortunately, was covered so that it didn’t get in the water. My parents wouldn’t have known who did it, but they had unfortunately, written hi to me on one of the windows. So my parents made me clean it up. I wasn’t really amused with my friends at the time, but ended up laughing about it later. The only “trick” I ever did came later with a couple of those same friends. We for some reason thought it would be funny to spray a little pile of shaving cream in the middle of the road and sit an egg on top of each pile. Not sure what people thought, but at least it didn’t hurt anyone. Glad my own kids never got into any trickery, but they did enjoy getting candy at families homes and at trunk or treats at some churches in our area. Our church doesn’t have anything for Halloween, but our pastor and his wife did bring their 5 small children to our home for some candy this year and they all looked adorable in their costumes. I miss our kids being little and dressing up.
Author
That was definitely a trick on you when you had to clean up the “tricks” your friends played on you, Hope. The shaving cream nest with egg is a little odd, but that’s how we are when we’re kids sometimes. We come up with some different ideas. LOL.
I’m like you in that I miss seeing the kids dressed up. The years I was sitting with Mom while she was sick, I enjoyed handing out candy on Halloween since she lived in town. It was fun seeing the costumed kids. Our church didn’t have our fall party this year because of the pandemic. It’s been a year of no events.
Some of the boys in our neighborhood soaped windows if nobody was home to give out candy.
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I guess out here in the country, I miss out on that, Lee. And that’s good! While I need to wash my windows, I don’t want to have to scrub off soap.
I always went as a child and also did it for UNICEF. Fun times with family and friends. I never played tricks. Blessings
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I remember when kids used to go trick or treating for UNICEF. I had forgotten about that until you mentioned it. Glad you have good memories of those times, Lucy.
I remember doing that one year, too.