I do not recall when it quieted down in the past decade or 2.
Was this trick of Trick or Treat in the rest of the USA on Halloween?
Does Detroit still burn itself down in celebration?
Don’t forget chalk night and soap night!
As I remember it, Trick or Treat night was the 30th, the night before Halloween, and the pranksters went out on Halloween Night itself to harass the people who had not provided treats the night before. But that was back in the ‘40’s in New Jersey for me. The same ‘rules’ applied in the early 1950’s in the D.C. suburbs of Maryland.
There has been some “wilding” going on on Halloween night for some time now. Something else Trump will be blamed for.
I grew up in a Northern Kentucky suburb of Cincinnati, it was very popular when I was a kid, and was called Cabbage Night. It was mostly pranks, writing on car windows with paraffin, and throwing firecrackers in mailboxes, and things like that.
Grew up in Jersey in the late 60s, early 70s. Mischief night was big in my area. Toilet paper in trees, and soaped windows was the big thing...plus smashed pumpkins.
It didn't get retributive until people were in mid-teens. It must have been the water, though. We used to have bottle rocket and Roman candle fights on 4 July.
Not just a Jersey thing. I grew up in New York, mostly in Westchester County (which I miss), and kids did it there too.
I lived in NJ till I was 12 years old. In one county we had Cabbage Night in another there was Goosey Night. Never heard it called Mischief Night in all those years.
I remember mischief night! Grew up in Hunterdon County, NJ in the 80s. My parents (and the rest of our neighborhood) wouldn’t let the kids use eggs or shaving cream since they were a PITA to clean up. We were only allowed to TP the trees.
I tried to explain this phenomenon to my husband, who grew up in a Philadelphia suburb. He never heard of it.
Mischief night was a big thing in Delaware in the 50’s. Twas the night before Halloween. Mostly little pranks like ringing doorbells and running away and marking windows with soap. Some kids did stuff like lighting dog poo on fire in front of a house, ring the doorbell, and hope the owner came out to stomp it out. Don’t see it much here anymore.
I remember back in the late 1960s early 1970s growing up in South Jersey Mischief Night was the night before Halloween. As a kid I participated in some shenanigans back then. Just some soaped up windows and random door knocks.
One step away from the Purge.
One step away from the Purge.
It’s a Pennsylvania thing too and it’s been around a long time. I remember my father and uncles laughing about the time they put a crotchety neighbor’s outhouse on the roof of his barn one cold October 30 night. This would have been in the first decade of the 20th century when lots of the families in the small town I grew up in did not have septic systems. Somewhere I have a five minute 8mm color film reel of my uncles installing indoor plumbing in my grandmother’s house. It must have been from the early 1930’s. And this was just 30 miles west of Center City Philly.
In my hay day in the late ‘50’s early ‘60’s it was cherry bombs in mailboxes and flaming paper bags of dog poop at the front door after ringing the doorbell. I quit all that immediately after getting shot with a double barrel 12 gauge loaded with rock salt from about 30 feet away of a guy’s front door of a nearby farmhouse that George Washington spent a night in coupla hundred years ago.
Every town had it’s Halloween vandalism in the past, usually trash strewn along the streets, and always an outhouse or two in the middle of main st.
One Halloween night the local cop stayed up all night to keep the teens from strewing trash all over town. At 6 AM in the morning he went home to clean streets. By 7 AM, the streets were trashed and an outhouse in the main intersection.
As a Generation Xer growing in the NYC Metro area we called it Gate Night. This is the first time I have heard the term “Mischief” used. When I was growing a lot more went down besides using toilet paper.
I grew up in South Jersey. Mischief Night was a thing...my participation mainly was soaping car windows. Eggs were food and my mother would have killed me if she thought I was throwing food away.