Memory Monday # 44

      Even though it is November, I forgot to share childhood Halloween memories while still in October.  On another blog I where I write and post pictures, Our Beautiful World, I told of the Halloween contests and parades in my hometown, but didn't talk much about the tradition of trick or treating!

The town Halloween Costume Contest and Parade!

     In my youth, as now, Halloween was the time to dress up and see how many treats you can get!!  Back in the forties and the fifties, we didn't have the concerns of sicko's doctoring the treats with dangerous things, and, being from a small town, we knew everyone anyway.  So we would often get homemade treats...popcorn, homemade fudge, etc.  We would travel the town in groups of five or six..when we were old enough to go alone...from about with eight or nine through age twelve.  As younger kids, four-seven, our parents would walk us around to a few houses...but no one dressed up babies or toddlers and dragged them around!  Whoops...that sounded kinda' crabby old, didn't it!! Oh, well!!

We were big into homemade costumes!

     It was also customary to go several nights, three or four at least...we could cover all the town that way!  And we could share the best places with other kids that had been the night before!  Everyone seemed to understand this practice and go along with it.  Everyone would try to guess who was who dressed up, and all made quite a town party out of the holiday...probably most people really had no idea of the origin of the "Hallows Eve" and its real purpose. I've given you a link to look up some interesting facts if you wish. I know I didn't really know until I was much older...it is really a fascinating subject!
     Anyway, there was one memory I have that relates to our town's tradition of multiple-night trick or treating....When I was in Junior High we visited the home of a rather new comer to town, and not aware of all our local "traditions".   We were visiting her a couple nights before the 31st and she rather rudely let us know that she had no treats, that it was NOT Halloween yet, and if we didn't get off her porch, she would call the police!  Well...little did she know that some of my friends would take the "TRICK or treat" part very seriously...I was not a party to the "trick", but knew what this group of boys had planned!  I am almost embarrassed to relate what they did...but I have started so will continue..they collected all the old dog poop they could find and scattered all over her porch!  Now, this sounds very vandalistic, but back in the Fifties, this was not considered extremely terrible!  There were a lot of innocent tricks done in those days...never any real harm to private property...just nuisance, more along the t-p-ing of houses today.
      I guess I am getting preachy now, but I do think some relatively innocent tricks are sometimes taken too seriously!  Believe me, I am not for bullying or destruction of property...there way too much of that, but I do think that there are some very righteous people out there who need to lighten up!