Get your own Free Home PageThe entire ritual of saying 'Trick or Treat' at someone's door is to give that person a choice - either pay up or pay the consequences. Something like the reputed business of the Mob. Now-a-days, treats are automatic and welcome to them. But in olden times, sometimes an unsuspecting householder would take his or her chances on the trick.
My mother was born at the end of 1921. Cher's mother was born five or six years later. Both grew up in Ohio, my mother in Springfield, Cher's mother near Akron. My mother wasn't the cut-throat type. She was more likely to be the recipient of someone's prank than to play one herself. But Cher's mother was the opposite.
Cher's mother told me about some of the pranks she and her friends played on neighbors. One was to put dog droppings in a paper bag and light the bag on fire on someone's doorstep. They would ring the bell, then run around the corner of the house or just outside the gate, so they could watch the fun.
The door would open, and the householder would see a burning bag on their step. Trying to keep their house from burning, they would start stomping the fire out. This got messy, and the kids would giggle in their hiding place.
Another trick was to topple outhouses. Back then, many homes still had outdoor facilities placed over pits in the back yard. These buildings were meant to be moved every so often and so weren't anchored down well. The kids would go into the back yards and push the buildings over.
One man, who didn't care much for children, used to bedevil Cher's mother and the other kids when they passed his house on their way to school. He would put rocks out on his sidewalk when they were skating too. He lived on a hill. They didn't like him any more than he liked them.
This man had put his outhouse on wheels so it would be easier to move. At Hallowe'en, Cher's mother and her friends decided they would go into this man's back yard and roll his outhouse down the slope in his back yard.
They crept in, watching the house to make sure their prey wouldn't spot them before the deed was done. Reaching the outhouse, they started pushing it toward the slope. The house seemed heavy; When the man started yelling from inside as the house started rolling down the slope, they knew why!
Children have knocked on doors and squirted householders with mashed
potatoes and shaving cream, strung toilet paper in the trees, soaped windows,
and set buckets of water over doorways. It's a time-honored tradition
that's more fun to do than to have done to, that's for sure!
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