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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?