Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Thursday, October 28. 2010

Today's Poll: Halloween Tricks

What sorts of petty vandalism did you engage in on Halloween?


I got in trouble for chalking somebody's driveway with vulgar words one time.


As an adult, I also got in trouble with my wife one year when a neighbor and I escorted our young kids, and we ourselves trick-or-treated our friends and neighbors for cocktails and beers. We got too many. Not our fault for being overserved.

Posted by Bird Dog in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 10:55 | Comments (12) | Trackbacks (0)

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Ha! Our neighborhood distributes beers to parents too.
#1 NJSoldier on 2010-10-28 11:34 (Reply)
No stories?

Were our readers all angels and Boy Scouts?
#2 Bird Dog on 2010-10-28 13:02 (Reply)
As an adult.
1. Saran wrapped my neighbor's car.
2. Took my other neighbor's adirondack chair's and put them on my other neighbor's roof with the sign "Free" on them
3. Used copious amounts of vaseline on the above neighbor's car door handles.
4. Distributed large amounts of shaving cream on their driveways.
5. Put 3 rolls of caution tape around my neighbors porch
and house.
I know it's kind sick/childish of me, but their uber liberal progressives, and I get great satisfaction of bothering the hell out of them.
#2.1 jappy on 2010-10-28 18:34 (Reply)
Mostly things like toilet-paper in the trees, but one Hallow'een, there seemed to be a large number of eggings and egg-wars between my group of friends and rival "gangs," that got a little out of hand...
#3 cas on 2010-10-28 13:03 (Reply)
We were pretty well-behaved. There was a rule that a house without candy was egged. I was just following the rules.
#4 NJSoldier on 2010-10-28 13:09 (Reply)
In the countryside [30/sq. mile], we were too far spaced to not do trick or treating without a parent driving us. As there were no groups of kids congregating outside, as in a town setting, the chances for mayhem were cut down. Because trick or treating was associated with parents driving you around, the incentive for trick or treating was dead by age 14 or earlier.

I do remember Halloween parties at the town hall, so there was some aggregation of kids for Halloween, but we were together only at the town hall. I remember being PO'd because a classmate had won prizes two years in a row with the same costume. Not fair, I thought to myself. I believe there were more homemade costumes back then, and more store bought costumes nowadays. My mother made some pretty good costumes. My sister as Abe Lincoln w a stove pipe hat.

My elders were the hell raisers, such as the carriage on rooftop prank[s] that my grandfather and his peers pulled off, and the taut wire w outhouse falling over that my father and his friends did.
#5 Gringo on 2010-10-28 15:09 (Reply)
Rolled a private girls school with friend.We used multi colors and probably 100 rolls.It took several hours.Our arms were sore but it rated a full page picture in their Yearbook.

Some years we hid behind a bridge and rolled an old hubcap noisily into the the road as a car passed.If the car stopped,we jumped out,grabbed the hubcap and shouted "Got yer hubcap"...the chase was on!
#6 RickTn on 2010-10-28 17:16 (Reply)
Well, the only prank I ever got into trouble over, as you might suspect, involved boats. It was the Fall of 1965 as I remember. Several friends and me decided to have some fun with a yacht club local who richly deserved some harrassement. We all dressed up as pirates, launched my 13' Boston Whaler Sport and took to the harbor to "board" his 40' sailboat and "capture" his flags - his Eastern Yacht Club Commodore's pennant, the EYC Ensign and his USA pennant. It wasn't like we were going to do anything bad to them - just "capture" the flags and fly them from the top of the Marblehead Light House.

Apparently our harbor activity was noticed by some nosey busy bodies on shore and they called the Harbor Master who called the police who put out the Police Boat. Our natural inclination at this point was discretion being the better part of valor so we made a run for the harbor entrance with the idea that we could round Fort Sewall, tuck in behind Brown's Island and lose ourselves over the seawall in the cove next to Grace Oliver's beach and make our escape that way with the added benefit of doing some trick or treating as we walked back to our base of operations - the local Sea Scout building.

We had out run the Police boat by a good distance and were feeling pretty good about our "escape" as we rounded Fort Sewall singing "Barnicle Bill the Sailor" when lo and behold there was the USCG patrol boat heading in our direction lights flashing and the USCG chopper starting our way - both were out of USCGS Winter Island in Salem, MA which was a distance of maybe 1.5 miles from out position.

The jig was up so we hove to and awaited our fate at the hands of the Coasties and the Harbor Patrol. Fortunately, the HP took charge of the situation and followed us back to the wharf where we started this adventure.

Needless to say, our parents were not pleased, but it was an amused kind of not pleased - you could tell they were trying hard not to laugh as they met my boat at the wharf and in particular when they grounded the bunch of us for two weeks.

Which was ok by me anyway, because it was late in the season and I was going to pull the Whaler for the winter anyway.
#7 Tom Francis on 2010-10-28 18:28 (Reply)
I had my biggest Halloween fright last Sunday night. As you may know, being a Badger in a small rural county in the Midwest does not pay real well, so I work or two nights a week as a night auditor at a local resort. Last Sunady was a very quiet night, so I decided to swing by the resort, and check the schedule. I swung my Crown Vic in, and parked it behind the Security one, and went in. I had a nice chat with the night audit and was standing by the front desk, yakking with the security guard, when we heard a mighty thump coming from the restaraunt across the lobby from the front desk. ( the noise turned out to be all three ice machines dumping at the same time, but we did not know that at the time). Since the restaraunt had been closed for 5 hours, the guard unlocked the door, and we entered to do a building clearance. Nothing in kitchen, nothing in either dining room. I then went down the darkened hall to the bar, sidearm in one paw, flashlight in the other . I saw a figure behind the bar, and as I swung round to confront it, I saw it raise a knife, and I almost emptied my HK into a motion activated 'evil scarecrow' that the bartender had placed behind the bar. I bet it took 5 minutes for me to stop shaking. Well, at least I didn't blow a hole in the scarecrow, and the wall of the bar.
#8 SCOTTtheBADGER on 2010-10-28 21:24 (Reply)
We had a fake rope trick ambush. It seemed to work about once a year. on a straight stretch of road between neighborhoods where the speed limit went from 30 to 45, our group split in two covering both sides of the road. With a properly spaced approaching car we would pantomime pulling a rope taught across the road.

Most cars would slow down, but the winner was the one that screeched to a stop to then be pelted with eggs. Getting the eggs became a problem as the local grocers colluded to restrict egg sales on Halloween. Getting carded to prove you were over 21 to buy eggs, seemd a bit harsh.
#9 oceanguy on 2010-10-29 10:25 (Reply)
Chalking a sidewalk! Wow, that's the same thing I got in trouble for about forty years ago. The adults in the neighborhood were having a big Halloween Party, and one of my buddies and I created a series of "ads" pointing the way to the party, in chalk on the sidewalk. Some of them were considered a bit vulgar back then.
#10 Jon (Link) on 2010-10-29 15:10 (Reply)
Painted the horses in the neighborhood - of a different color, of course. Got about half dozen done. Fun times.
#11 milabro on 2010-10-29 22:41 (Reply)

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