Sharing Memories (Genealogy Journal Writing Week 44): Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet!

It's Week 44 of our Sharing Memories - A Genealogy Journey Please join us each Sunday as we share our memories of childhood. Your descendants will be thankful that you did! Share a memory here as a comment, or on your own blog, or in a private journal, but write! Leave a legacy for your children and grandchildren.

The obvious choice for a topic this week is Hallowe'en. But since we've been writing our journals for two years now, guess what? We talked about Hallowe'en and costumes last year! So I thought this weekend we could talk specifically about

1. what treats we got as kids going out on Hallowe'en
2. what treats we loved the best
3. were there any houses you made sure you went to and were there any you avoided at all costs
4. what tricks did you pull (if any)

I used to grab a pillowcase and meet up with my friend Janie. We'd make the rounds of as many homes as possible, often returning to our own homes to grab a second or even a third pillowcase. I lived in a small village/town and word soon spread about who was giving out candy apples - a very special favourite with all us kids.

We also learned quickly who was Mr. or Mrs. Grumpy and not giving out anything except curt words. Those homes we avoided. But people who turned off all their lights and pretended they weren't home were high on our list to irritate. You know what I mean - we'd run up and ring the doorbell repeatedly, or knock loudly and without stopping for several minutes. 

Another thing we'd do to annoy them (because we were pretty sure they were just hiding behind their curtains in their darkened rooms) was to gather in a large group and yell out our favourite (and for some reason forbidden by our mothers) chant

Trick or Treat

Smell my feet

Give me something good to eat

Not too big, not too small

Just the size of Montreal

The candies we got the most of were those dreadful cheap Hallowe'en sticky ones wrapped in orange and black candy wrappers. Sometimes we got an apple but we never ate them as the words of our mothers rang loudly in our ears "Don't eat any apples until I check them for razor blades!"

Sometimes we got gum but other than that there wasn't much variety. A rare but longed-for treat was a chocolate bar and I don't mean any of the mini-bars you can buy now. These were full sized chocolate bars and boy was it rare to get one of those. 

The candies in our pillowcases would last for days. I kept mine under my bed and snacked on the rarely-seen sweets as often as I could. Talk about a sugar high!

What kinds of treats did you get? And what pranks or tricks did you pull?