WEBVTT - Selects: Where Did Trick-Or-Treating Come From? 0:00:00.680 --> 0:00:04.519 Hey, everybody. For this week's select, I've chosen our twenty 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:07.920 nineteen episode on trick or Treating. It's a really in 0:00:08.000 --> 0:00:10.240 depth look at trigger treating and it's got a lot 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:13.720 of surprising stuff inside, Like it turns out that if 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:17.000 you don't set abandoned buildings on fire on Halloween, then 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:19.800 you've been trick or treating all wrong all this time. 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:23.119 But don't worry. We're releasing this just in time for 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:27.120 you to learn the ropes this Halloween. Happy and extremely 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:44.360 safe Halloween, everybody. 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:49.600 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:58.280 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:01.360 there's Charles v Chuck, Brian over there, there's Jerry, And 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:05.039 this is stuff you should know that right before Halloween. 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:09.000 Addition about. 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:11.200 Feel like a little kid every Alloween. 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:12.039 I'm pretty excited about it. 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:14.760 Yeah, do you get trick or treaters? No? 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:17.560 Not really, no kind of life hashtag, et cetera. 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:21.920 Yeah, And I've told my story before, but I'll just 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:25.400 briefly summarize again that my house is after a big 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:27.920 curve in the road, and people seem to just stop 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:28.920 at that curve in the road. 0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:30.920 Well, they don't want to come up on old man 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:34.679 Bryant's house. No, you know, the old dead oak tree 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:37.560 with the big hole in it that yeah Boo Radley 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:40.520 hides figures in is kind of off putting. Is right 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:41.319 on your property. 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:43.440 And I think in my neighborhood too. 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:46.560 They close they literally close off, the cops close off 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:47.280 two blocks. 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:51.920 It's just this big square of streets and. 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:56.080 That's the official sanctioned no stress area where the parents 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:58.200 all just walk around and get drunk and all the 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:00.919 kids just run around and don't to worry about cars. 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:02.080 Right, So. 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:07.040 Everyone in my neighborhood has congregated there and you're outside 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:09.840 of them, outside the zone. Yeah, which I kind of miss, 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:13.040 Like I like trick or treaters coming to my house. 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:16.400 I guess I could maybe try, and well I could 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:18.680 move a few houses in which I'm not going to do. 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:22.600 We could casually move the the roadblocks a little further 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:23.720 back to include your house. 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:27.080 Well, they're actual police cars with police officers. I can't 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:29.880 move them, give them some but I could put signs 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:32.919 that like, you know this way for the best yet 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:35.120 and then you like only two more houses. 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:38.520 Right, or like leave a trail of candy because I remember. 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:40.320 When I first moved to Atlanta, we rented a house 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:42.440 that got a lot of trick or treaters and I 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:42.880 loved it. 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:45.680 Man, I scared the heck out of those kids. 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:48.120 Oh really, yeah, it was a lot of fun, Like 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:51.840 I really got that was my first big adult giving 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:54.360 out candy night, like the first time I've ever been 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:56.440 able to do that, because you didn't have kids yet, 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:59.880 so we weren't out of trick or treating. And uh yeah, 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:02.760 I made a really a punt to music out, like 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:05.680 the Psycho theme and scary John Carpenter stuff. 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:07.560 Sure, I really enjoyed it. 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:11.000 Did you like do anything to overtly scare them? 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:11.320 Oh? 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:14.680 Yes, I wore a I was dressed up as a 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:15.919 very scary person. 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:19.160 Huh. And I would jump out and scare them over 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:19.720 and over and over. 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:22.799 Did you really jump out? Good for you, Chuck, or. 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:24.840 I would stand in the like Emily would be giving 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:27.640 out candy, and I would just be in the darkened house, 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:29.960 like eight feet behind her, just standing there motionless. 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:32.800 That's always a nice attack. 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:36.080 Nice, But the point is I sort of feel like 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:38.640 we're missing out, Like we certainly enjoy taking our daughter out, 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:40.840 but I really wish we had kids that came by. 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:42.760 Yeah, I wish you did too, too bad. 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:45.560 Yeah, a stupid house right there near the main road, 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:49.280 so close yet so far away, so far away, and 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:52.520 that's your forever house too. Huh Yeah no, trigger treats 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:53.320 ever again for you. 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:54.240 And walked in there. 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:56.720 But what we could do is, you know, we could 0:03:56.760 --> 0:04:00.520 go to a friend's house and that they jump on 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:01.240 their coattails. 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:03.680 You can't sit on their couch. You have to take 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:05.960 your shoes off in their house. You can't be comfortable. 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:08.560 We've long talked to me and my friend Eddie and Allison. 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:10.840 You know the I'm about. They have a good backyard. 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:13.920 It's about doing like a haunted trail one year that 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:15.600 like if you come trick or treating, you got to 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:16.120 go through. 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:16.680 The trail first. 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:18.039 It sounds like a lot of work. 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:20.400 It is, and it would be fun, no, I mean for. 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:23.000 The kids who have to go through the trail kind 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:25.800 of earn right, you got to earn that free candy. 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:27.160 Earn that Reesa's pieces. 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:30.720 So we just hit upon like fifteen different themes in 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:35.240 this episode. If you'll if you'll agree, I agree, yes, 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:40.640 So we're talking about trick or treating here, and if 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:42.719 you look at the thing on its face, just the 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:46.239 words trick or treat, there seems to be some sort 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:49.039 of option here. You can do one or the other. 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:51.200 There used to be give me a treat or you 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:53.080 get a trick, basically was the equation. 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:55.080 Yeah, they should just change the name now to just 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:55.880 treat night. 0:04:55.839 --> 0:05:00.320 Treat night, right exactly. We aren't one hundred you sent 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:02.719 sure on where trigger treating came from, but what we 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:05.880 do know is that it was originated in America in 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:08.440 the twentieth century, and that there was this really like 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:11.840 brief Golden age where it lived up to its name 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:15.000 trick or treat. There was a there was an offer 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:18.440 to not get pranked or tricked, and if you didn't 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:20.400 take the people up on the offer, the kids up 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:23.040 on the offer by giving them candy, you got pranked. 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:25.400 That was the equation. It was in the name. Everybody 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:28.560 knew the score. And then it slowly kind of moved 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:31.960 over to what we understand today, where the police set 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:33.400 up roadblocks and everything is. 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:35.840 Safe these kids these days, and it's just. 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:38.600 Kinda just like you said, just the treat side of 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:39.120 the equation. 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:41.640 Yeah, I was, of course kidding but we'll get to it. 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:45.520 There are people that really do decry this new generation 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:49.279 of children who just expect handouts and that it leads 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:51.880 to the idea of the welfare state, right, and all 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:55.599 this other garbage that I have no patience for sure, 0:05:56.080 --> 0:06:00.159 because it's just a fun thing for kids. Yeah, do 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:01.479 you think they should be earning the stuff? 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:01.680 No? 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:03.040 No, No, I don't feel that way. 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:05.880 I do feel well, I think it'll come through loud 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:07.040 and clear as we do the episode. 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:09.159 Right, Well, we should jump back a little bit to 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:12.160 the origins of Halloween. We've gone over this before an 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:14.760 episode's past, but we all know it originally started as 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:18.120 a pagan harvest or not just one, but pagan harvest 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:22.960 festivals in general among the Celts over in the UK. Yes, 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:27.520 and that evolved into Halloween, but it had nothing to 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:28.960 do with trick or treating at the time. 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:31.400 No, it wasn't wrong. Again, trick or treating is a 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:36.080 one hundred percent American invention, that's right. And so with 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:40.200 Halloween in particular, you've got all these different components for 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:42.719 the modern Halloween or for trick or treating. Yes, you 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:45.599 have going from house to house, you have getting two 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:49.159 said house and asking for a treat, basically sanctioned begging, 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:53.599 got your costume, costume, dressing up, being outside, kind of 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:57.159 parading around. All of these things find their origin in 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:02.240 the Celtic and I think specifically Gaelic harvest festivals that 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:06.719 introduced the dark half of the year. That's right, And 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:10.920 in particular there was Sowyn, which forever I've always said 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:12.679 sam Hayne, because that's how it's spelled. 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:14.800 Now, you said Salen right when we did our have 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:17.200 a wee an episode, didn't you? Probably? Yeah? 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:21.200 By the way, speaking of sown or sam Hayne, you 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:23.080 realized that I went to New York and saw the 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:24.000 Misfits on Saturday. 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:24.640 Oh yeah, how was that? 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:27.960 I mean it, it was great, colossally amazing. This is 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:31.240 the original Misfits, right, the original Misfits. Glenn Danzig, Jerry 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:35.840 Only Sure, Doyle, Wolfgang von Frankenstein. Yeah, who actually specifically 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:40.160 invited us to this listener right, yes, to this this show. 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:41.240 And it was that's amazing. 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:42.120 Knock your socks off? 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:43.640 Didn't the Damned play as well? 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:46.280 The Damned opened, and then Rancid and then the Misfits 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:48.600 just tore the roof off the sucker. 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:49.760 I saw when I saw you were going. 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:52.560 I looked up some YouTube clips of this tour and 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:53.720 it looked pretty amazing. 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:56.880 It was amazing and I think Glenn Danzig said that 0:07:57.000 --> 0:07:59.360 was their last one ever. Oh really, and so we 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:01.120 got to see it. Wow, yeah, you me and I 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:02.000 had a great time. 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:02.520 Amazing. 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:05.680 So big, big thanks to Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein for 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:06.200 the invite. 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:08.160 The stage set up looked great, it was. 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:10.520 It was just a really cool show and they played 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:11.880 almost everything. 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:12.240 Yeah. 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:14.280 Yeah, it was just a really good show. 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:18.960 That's fantastic. So anyway back to Sowyn, Yeah, so I 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:21.120 mean that's a perfect time to mention that show. Though 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:22.880 it all worked out, it did. 0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:29.720 Hallow's Eve was the night considered when the veil between 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:32.440 the living and the dead was the shortest, and so 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:35.480 that's when this that's when Halloween formed. 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:41.000 Right right, So people would dress up in like modern 0:08:41.080 --> 0:08:45.920 day Ireland, Scotland, I believe, Wales. Yeah, man, they would 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:49.880 dress up like demons or fairies or supernatural characters who 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:53.240 were because this veil was so thin between the living 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:56.800 and the dead or the supernatural, right, they could cross over. 0:08:56.880 --> 0:08:58.800 These preachers could cross over and communicate. 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:01.400 So if you dressed up them. Maybe they would be 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:03.760 confused and think you're one of them and leave you alone. 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:04.400 That's right. 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:07.000 So this now we've got the costume thing going right. 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:07.800 That's right. 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:12.959 And part of that was the community getting together, getting 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:18.560 drunk on you know, probably high octanea meat and stuff 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:21.440 like that, and they would pray through the town. They 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:23.719 still have Halloween parades all over the place. Right here 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:26.079 in Atlanta we have one of the best and little 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:27.400 Five Points Halloween parade. 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:30.080 Fantastic, Like when you think about the Halloween preyed at 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:33.440 your town, like that is centuries millennia old. Yeah, that 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:34.240 tradition is. 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:34.880 Yeah. 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:38.040 So we have those two things going on, and then 0:09:38.320 --> 0:09:43.720 the one missing piece is knock knock, Hey give me candy. Right, 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:46.480 But this we have the origins of which came and 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:49.280 it's still not Halloween. It took American kids to put 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:53.280 all this stuff together. But the European tradition of souling, 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:56.640 which was when kids on Hallow z would go from 0:09:56.640 --> 0:10:00.760 house to house and pray for the souls the departed, 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:03.600 and in exchange you would get a soul cake. 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:06.080 Yeah, which I looked up. They look pretty good. 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:07.439 What is it? Just a little bit good? 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:09.880 It looks like a muffin top like top of the muffin. 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:12.520 To you, it looks really good. 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:17.080 Soul cakes or mumming, which is and this sounds fantastic. 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:19.800 I wish kids still had to do this stuff. You 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:23.920 would have to perform a short musical number or some 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:27.840 kind of performance to get a treat of some kind, right, 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:29.120 maybe a little spare change. 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:31.480 Right, So in that sense you have going to house 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:34.360 to house and getting something from the owners of the house, 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:35.960 like a treat or something like that. 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:39.120 That's right, But there was a reason. 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:41.160 For that, praying for the soul of their departed loved one, 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:45.000 doing a little dance number something like that. The prank part, 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:48.040 the prank part of the equation that also existed before 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:51.079 trick or treating too, and in fact that was kind 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:56.880 of the origin the biggest tradition of Halloween itself was pranking. 0:10:57.559 --> 0:10:59.320 Yeah, and that came from Ireland, is that right? 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:02.640 Yeah, in the eighteen eighties, they would prank. They would 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:04.839 just run around doing pranks and then they would blame 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:10.000 those fairies or demons, right, han sown for the mischief 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:11.760 that it wasn't nuts, it was the fairies. 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:14.400 On sam Hin, right, I mean it sounds. 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:15.560 That's how it's spelled. 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:18.600 Yeah, it's really that's a confounding pronunciation, it is. 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:19.480 But there you have it. 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:19.960 That's right. 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:22.720 And then pranks back then, and of course we're pretty 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:28.680 low key dingdung ditch stuff like that, moving the neighbor's 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:29.760 furniture to the roof. 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:33.160 I saw that. Yeah, flower pot on the chimney. Sure, 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:36.320 but it would also get way way worse than that. 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:40.160 Yeah, I looked up mischief night. We never did that. 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:43.040 In Georgia, no or Devil's Night. 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:44.040 It was also called. 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:46.000 Yeah, which is the night before Halloween when all these 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:50.000 pranks would happen region to region is called different apparently. 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:55.480 In New Jersey it's mischief Night, Cabbage Nights. Well, in Camden, 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:58.040 New Jersey's Mischief Night. Other parts of New Jersey call 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:02.439 it cabbage Night. Since NATA calls it Damage Night. 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:06.360 That's pretty overt. That's a punk band name, right there. 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:11.880 Damage Night, Yeah, totally that you insurance deductible night. Other part. 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:14.240 I don't know why Ohio is so highly represented here. 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:16.679 Beggar's Knight is something else. They called it in Ohio. 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:18.960 Chok, because there's nothing else to do in Ohio but 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:21.280 sit around and wait for that night. 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:22.000 For Hellow's Eve. 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:26.360 Other names Doorbell Knight, Trick Night, Corn Night, Tic Tac Night, 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:32.320 Goosey Night, and then in Canada Gate Night or Matt 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:34.920 Knight if you're in Quebec, because mat. 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:35.640 They would take. 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:37.560 They would steal the gate off your fence or the 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:39.280 mat from your doorstep and. 0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:40.200 Oh really remove it. 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:44.319 Yeah, okay, so they're pretty on the nose, especially Damage Night. 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:49.760 But Devil's Night in Detroit it became legendary over about 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:53.520 a twenty year period in the seventies and through the 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:56.880 mid nineties. I saw before they finally got a little 0:12:56.880 --> 0:13:00.640 bit of a could put a dent in it by 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:02.480 forming Angels Night. 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:06.360 Yeah, they kind of rebranded it. 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:07.400 Well, not rebranded. 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:10.800 The angels were volunteers who would walk around to keep 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:12.400 kids from setting everything on fire. 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:14.400 Oh okay, because that's what they did on Devil's Night. 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:15.760 It was a night of arsen It was a night 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:16.240 of arson. 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:18.480 I thought that it ran its course because they burned 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:21.000 all the buildings down in Detroit. There was nothing else left. 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:22.520 It was a real problem. 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:26.240 Though I looked into it and like hundreds of kids, 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:28.560 Like in nineteen ninety four, I think there were like 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:32.760 three hundred and fifteen kids arrested from the Devils Night 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:34.199 fires and other stuff. 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:37.920 In nineteen eighty four, the peak of Devil's Night in Detroit, 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:40.920 there were eight hundred and ten cases of arson in 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:44.120 one night. Amazing in Detroit. Yeah, they would just set 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:45.080 the city on fire. 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:47.000 And I'm sure some of these were bags of poop 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:49.559 on a doorstep, which I think we can all agree 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:50.400 is harmless fun. 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:54.439 It is, unless you're the steppy cever. 0:13:54.200 --> 0:13:55.800 Did any of the stuff? I never rolled a house. 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:58.040 Oh you didn't, Now that was fun. 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:00.000 I'm so mad. I was so busy being good. 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:01.120 Never too late, buddy. 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:03.480 I know I should roll a house or fork a yard. 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:06.040 I don't know if that is the plastic forks. 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:09.480 Just basically get like two thousand plastic forks and stick 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:10.040 them in the yard. 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:11.959 Oh yeah, I've never heard of that one. You never 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:14.000 did that. Really chew up a lawnmower. 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:16.120 I never egged a house because I always heard that, Yeah, 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:17.240 really damage his paint. 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:19.880 Yeah. We did have the Junior senior egg fight every year. 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:20.560 That was kind of fun. 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:21.800 Well, there you go, you got something. 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:24.520 We get together in a field and throw eggs at 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:24.880 each other. 0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:31.120 Aside from wasting a lot of press resource with well eggs, yes, 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:34.920 but also toilet paper. You really should roll somebody's house 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:37.800 at least once in your life. It's great, is it? 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:41.240 Yeah? All right, Yeah, I'm gonna roll your condo. 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:44.040 I remember when I was a kid. Actually, my friend 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:47.080 and I rolled the neighbor's house, but we had to 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:48.520 be in or at least, so we were doing it 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:53.080 basically in broad daylight. It was dusk at best, and 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:57.320 the cop drove by, which never happened in our neighborhood ever. 0:14:57.520 --> 0:14:57.760 Never. 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:00.080 The cops just weren't needed, right, It was just I 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:02.240 think we talked about in the free Range episode in 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:06.560 parents episode, you could just do whatever. And we had 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:08.800 to knock out of the house of the neighbor whose 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:11.080 house we just rolled to let us in to hide 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:13.480 from the cop. She went out and told the cop like, 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:15.840 it's it's fine, don't worry about it. We rolled her 0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:18.960 house and had to get safe harbor from her. 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:21.040 Yeah, And you can't really clean up a roll house, 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:22.120 can you. 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:25.240 You can? And if they come tell your parents what 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:27.520 you did. The rain makes it way worse. 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:29.680 Yeah, but I mean you can't you up there can right? 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:31.960 Some of it's inevitably stuck up there. But you can 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:35.200 pull it down as gingerly as you can to get 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:36.920 as much as you can. But no, some's going to 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:37.560 be left over. 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:39.920 All right, I'm going to roll a house. 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:43.160 Okay, just know whose house you're rolling, like, you don't 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:44.400 want to get shot at or anything. 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:46.320 I don't see that anymore either, I feel like it. 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:48.080 I mean, I don't live in the suburbs. Maybe it's 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:50.600 a little more prone to happen there. Yeah, but it 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:53.720 seems like a lost art it very well. 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:56.520 Maybe I don't know anybody who rolls. I just assumed 0:15:56.560 --> 0:15:58.640 it was because we'd outgrown it, you know. 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:00.280 Emily called it teeping house. 0:16:00.400 --> 0:16:01.560 Yeah that's Ohio. 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:04.440 Yeah yeah, all right, let's take a break. 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:08.400 We barely talked about this. I think we're one page 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:09.600 in good that's great, all. 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:42.720 Right, stop, should stop, should know? 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:43.640 All right. 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:46.960 So to recap, Chuck, we have the costumes in play now. 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:51.680 We have being out on Halloween nights sometimes parading drunkenly community, 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:55.040 we have going from house to house, and we have 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:56.160 the prank factor. 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:56.880 That's right. 0:16:57.040 --> 0:16:59.280 All of these things are out there, floating around, have 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:02.440 been out there for centuries millennia. By the time America 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:05.320 is born and makes it to the twentieth century, and 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:10.040 at some point some kids said, we think, hey, you 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:12.400 know what, we could pull all this together and turn 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:15.960 it into something really amazing and peculiar and unique called 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:16.800 trick or treating. 0:17:17.080 --> 0:17:17.480 That's right. 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:24.200 You found a great piece from a sociologist named Samira Kawash, 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:29.560 great name called Gangsters, Pranksters, and trick or Treating nineteen 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:30.879 thirty to nineteen sixty. 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:32.520 Yeah, and is this. 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:35.639 That pure period, Yeah, that you were talking about where 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:39.640 she thinks that American kids just created this thing. 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:43.000 Yeah, there's two historical views, because we don't know where 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:43.600 it came from. 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:44.040 Huh. 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:46.800 One historical view, and I think this is what Kawash 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:49.399 believes too, is that it was actually kids who figured 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:52.440 this out, which is great, who said we can extort 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:56.040 adults to not prank them if they give us treats, right, 0:17:56.320 --> 0:18:00.200 And that it was a genuinely a kid in mention 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:04.000 of kids, they made it up, right, And there's some 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:06.520 evidence for that kind of thing. A lot of like 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:09.200 the early newspaper accounts of it kind of call the 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:12.640 kids gangsters and say they're extorting people. It's also possible 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:16.440 that was like written super tongue in cheek and that dry. 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:18.560 It was kind of dry and lost to the ages. 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:19.760 Yeah. 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:23.680 The other historical view is that the kids were out 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:27.080 pranking and doing the pranks, and it was the adults 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:29.960 that introduced treats into the equation to buy them off, 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:32.520 okay to yeah, to keep them from pranking. 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:39.639 Right, Los Angeles possibly as the point of origin, and 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:43.919 this one wealthy kids. I guess that makes sense that 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:47.399 this would be the idea of like kids a privilege. Sure, 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:51.280