Mischief Night - Does it Still Exist

Years ago one of the highlights of the adolescent year was 'Mischief Night' or 'Devil's Eve', tonight!

Wiki: The earliest reference to Mischief Night is from 1790 when a headmaster at St John's College, Oxford encouraged a school play which ended in "an Ode to Fun which praises children's tricks on Mischief Night in most approving terms". In the United Kingdom, these pranks were originally carried out as part of May Day celebrations, but when the industrial revolution caused workers to move to urban areas, Mischief Night shifted to November 4, the night before Guy Fawkes Night. According to one historian, "May Day and the Green Man had little resonance for children in grimy cities. They looked at the opposite end of the year and found the ideal time, the night before the gunpowder plot." In Germany, Mischief Night is still celebrated on May 1.

Guy Fawkes, interesting. . .


Well it's been many years since I partook in the. . . festivities, but recently and I do mean the last 5-10 years or so, I haven't seen or heard(been the victim of) anything happening on this night. I'm starting to wonder if modern times and modern policing has taken this holiday away.

Part of my craziest childhood memories were nervously walking up to a supermarket register with: 6 dozen eggs, 4 cans of shaving cream, soap, brown paper bags, toilet paper and lighter fluid and giving one of numerous lame excuses as to why we needed it all. All in good fun right, back then we spent most of what we bought hitting each other it. But things were waaaaaaay different back then! (@20 years ago)


So what happened to this holiday?
Have any of you seen anything happen in the recent years?
Funny stories, pictures, videos to share?

Have fun tonight, maybe I'll go out and leave a present on the neighbors porch, who's dog keeps using my lawn as his toilet!

AB

a reply to: AnteBellum

35 years ago we didn't have the police state we have today. Not that destroying or defacing peoples property is right or an intelligent thing to do, I as a youth partook in this night of trickery and mischief.

I can only imagine the amount of police shootings we would read about in the paper the next day if this event were as common as it was back in the day...............

Where I"m from this is called CABBAGE NIGHT. (Connecticut).
It used to be my favorite day of the year.

We used to soap windows - both houses and cars.
We'd wrap peoples homes and cars in toilet paper.
We never smashed pumpkins or did any property damage.
It was light hearted fun stuff that could wash away in a rain.

originally posted by: FlyersFan
Where I"m from this is called CABBAGE NIGHT. (Connecticut).
It used to be my favorite day of the year.

We used to soap windows - both houses and cars.
We'd wrap peoples homes and cars in toilet paper.
We never smashed pumpkins or did any property damage.
It was light hearted fun stuff that could wash away in a rain.

My favorite was to take a wooden spool that you get thread on. Take a knife and cut notches around the rim on both ends of the spool. Then take a long length of string or fishing line, thread it thru the center of the spool and tie it in a knot.

Then you go wrap the length of string around the spool. Put a nail thru the spool center, *the drilled out hole already in the spool*.

This is the fun part. press the spool lightly against a window using the nail as a handle and give a quick hard pull on the string.

If someone is sitting in the room you will see them launch out of their chair! It really makes one heck of a noise!

Edit: Wow! I actually found a pic of a more advanced version that has a frame instead of a nail for the handle!



NO TREAT, BUT DEFINITELY TRICK AND POSSIBLY MAYHEM

a reply to: seeker1963

That's what I'm afraid of also!

a reply to: FlyersFan

That's how I remembered it, fun and lighthearted!

Even the local police were in on it at times. I watched a local officer stop my friends who had eggs in their jackets once. He asked what was in their pockets and when they lied he smacked their pockets. Nobody got arrested, nobody got hurt and damage was always more cleanup then fix up.

I'm afraid without social ways for kids to 'cut loose' we are seeing the extreme situations we have been seeing in the news lately. Every action has an opposite reaction. This month there was even a hazing scandal close by to me in Secaucus.

a reply to: AnteBellum

There is a Cacophany Society in Pittsburgh that organizes random group pillow fights and things like that. I actually wish this type of thing were more common, at least the non-destructive, fun variety of mayhem.

The older folks in my office were just discussing how Halloween itself seems to be lacking kids lately. With all the sick stuff that goes on in 'modern' times, it's no wonder. Stories of people sticking razor blades, pins, or chemicals in candy, abductors, overly paranoid home owners... it's a mess out there. I personally never took part in this prequel night, but I can testify there does seem to be a shortage of trick or treaters in recent years. Maybe Facebook and Minecraft are all the candy kids need any more.

a reply to: AnteBellum

If you think back, it seems that anything that was popular with the youth to hang out and have fun, seemed to always be discouraged!

Remember the video game arcades? OH! and God forbid if they had a pool table or two in them!

Odd when you think about it though. Kids today have a video game machine to lock their minds into. When I was a kid, we had the great outdoors to explore.........

a reply to: Septimus

This is how I gauge whether tptb have won or not. I too have seen the decline so much I started buying candy intentionally that I like, because of the amount of leftovers due to low trick or treaters.

What once was a fun day for friends to get together and legally beg for stuff has been turned into just another thing to fear. Halloween 2 started the tainted candy urban legend, it only happened a couple times and always by family members doing it to their own families. The media spun it like getting sealed candy was so different then at in line a register in a store.

Videos games, trick or treating restricted to daylight hours or a very early curfew and fear of getting hauled off to jail or shot has killed the fun.

a reply to: seeker1963

It was true, I was a tomboy that spent more time playing war and building forts then I ever did with dolls. Honestly, I can't remember ever playing with dolls. I had stuffed toys to snuggle with but outside running and hiding was how I spent most of my youth.

There was no fear from sex offenders, terrorists or police I don't think any of us in the neighborhood were really afraid of anything other then bees and sticker bushes.

Oh boy.

Just 4 years ago I participated. Hit a friends house with toilet paper and shrink wrapped their SUV.

Two nights later, our house was hit with the TP.



As far as kids these days? Yeah, I think the penalties are way too stiff for them. Personally, I see nothing wrong, as long as there is no actual destruction.
But, having sons, there were a few times we were TP'd, on just regular weekends.
It only sucks to clean up, after a rain.

en.wikipedia.org...'s_Night

This article is about the Detroit cultural phenomenon. For the album by rap group D12, see Devil's Night (album).
Devil's Night is a name associated with October 30, the night before Halloween. It is related to the "Mischief night" practiced in other parts of the United States and the world, but is chiefly associated with the serious vandalism and arson seen in Detroit, Michigan from the 1970s to the 1990s,[1] finally prompting the "Angels' Night" community response.


The Broadcastify for Detroit Fire Co was as busy as hell. (pun intended)

www.broadcastify.com...

originally posted by: FlyersFan
Where I"m from this is called CABBAGE NIGHT. (Connecticut).
It used to be my favorite day of the year.

I'm from CT, and I've never heard it called Cabbage Night. On the other hand, Mischief Night hasn't really been popular in my county since the mid 70s.

I really wished the night persisted like it once did. I think people need it badly.

a reply to: AnteBellum you mean HALLOWEEN ? We got a can of lighter fluid and squirted the can out making a line back and forth across a residential street. Then when a car came we lit it from our hiding place. An even 4-5 foot wall of fire appeared. the car came to a stop then went in reverse as fast as it could back up the street. when we were teens we bought this wax whistle that was made to be put in someone's exhaust pipe. we used a broom stick to jam it in real far. eventually it would melt, but for 3 or 4 days it made this really loud whistle people will turn around a block a head of you to see what is making that sound. I rode a motorcycle through a grocery store, well not through the whole store just in through the in door and past the checkout cashiers an then out the outdoor with a friend of mine on the back who knew one of the cashiers working that day. A company I worked desktop support for when we got tired of our office we would hang out in info and tech office. They had several administrator assistants that we would hang out with us and go to lunch and company events. There were 6 in a big cubicle and their desk were 2 rows of 3. To get to the desks they would walk down the center. When one of the admins that sat in one of the last desks was pregnant we all thought it would be a good idea when she was around 7 - 8 months. we started to move the desks together about a half inch every couple of days till one day she said as she was squeezing past the desks "...damn I am really getting big"