When Children were Children
Halloween pranks elicited discipline, not the law
By Sharon Hopper 

I have to look back a long way to find all these stories, but I remember a happy childhood, without the word stress or any of these other new fangled diseases being mentioned. This time of year especially brings forth memories of Halloween pranks that we did. And believe it or not we were not even arrested or tagged as delinquent children from dysfunctional homes. I lived in a beach front area where most of the people lived year around with very narrow streets and homes real close together. We ran those streets prior to Halloween for a week and we were allowed to ring doorbells and ask for treats for several days. 

I remember one particular night about five of us went to a house and the “old man” in our minds was rather short and unfriendly to us. So we went and found some doggie poo and put it in a bag and found an old garbage can lid and put it on the porch. Then we lit it afire and rang the doorbell and ran like the dickens to hide and watch the results of our work. Needless to say we heard a few choice words from the man as he was putting out the fire. Funny thing we went back another night to the same house and when we hollered “Trick or Treat” we received a treat. 

Another nasty trick we played on many people was soaping the windows. Especially when they did not answer the door or were not home. Had to be careful with that one because if they recognized us they would call our parents and that was not fun. In fact I remember one time having to wash about 10 windows because of that prank. The object was not to get caught. Were we bad kids or just kids having fun? I don’t think we ever picked on people who were sick or unable to get around. Those carefree days disappeared when my children were young. And now Halloween is treated almost like Christmas with all the decoration, parties, and stuff. It is no longer just a bunch of kids acting out the gremlins, witches, and broomsticks. 

I guess today it would be a disaster now that there are so many more people in our country than were here 40 or 50 years ago, but my question still stands. What happened to Children being Children without being considered delinquents? When we got caught it was our parents we were afraid of, not the law. My pride might have been stripped away at times, but not my childhood.