:Trick or what?

The pumpkins, corn stalks and other decorations seen all over the place make it clear that although it’s still fairly warm, Halloween is fast approaching.


Halloween also means tricks or treat. Some tricks can be funny; others really annoying. But they change as the generations change.

No one tips over outhouses any more. It’s hard to find someone who remembers having outhouses. My grandfather had one on his property in a small Illinois town, like a lot of his neighbors. This was before cities had plumbing and sewers. Pranksters around Halloween would tip them over but they never got my grandpa’s. He was no fool. A few weeks before Halloween pranks started he pushed his about three feet further so anyone trying to get close enough to get a good push got a rather unpleasant surprise instead.

Young people used to call folks on the phone around Halloween and ask if the caller’s refrigerator was running. Or they’d call stores and ask if they had Prince Albert in the can. Caller ID has rendered that little trick obsolete. Does anyone even carry Prince Albert tobacco any more?

When I was a teenager my cousins and I gathered some old purses, filled them with all kinds of disgusting material (including manure from the garden), and after dark we’d put one on the side of the road and hide. Most people would grab the purse, take off down the road, then brake to a sudden stop and toss the purse out so we would grab it and reuse it. We were aware of recycling even then.

But one night a girl in a very fancy dress grabbed the purse, opened it, and dumped the contents on her lap. I can’t say for sure that she learned a lesson about greed, but we learned one about vocabulary. And by the time the contents of that purse hit the fan, blame for the incident went to “a bunch of boys hiding along the road.” So we learned that being female has its advantages.