Druids and Outhouses

HEY KIDS!

How would you to become a true American hero by helping to solve a mystery of our history? It would involve an arduous hour or two spent in your local library, staring at microfilmed newspapers from the 1930s. If you find anything good, you'll get a very nice thank-you in the book I'm putting together. You'll be in print! And it's an opportunity to immerse yourself in the Dirty Thirties: you'll find that nothing has changed in the intervening seventy years--exactly the same scandals, the same outrages, the same murders.

You see, the deal is that no one knows where trick or treating came from. If you do a bit of research on Halloween history--and for God's sake, do not send me any URLs; I know how to use Google too--all the self-styled historians duck the question by pompously asserting that trick-or-treating was the result of urbanization or that it was a conspiracy by adults to curb vandalism. Yeah, sure. If that's the case, how come it started in the Thirties? And where are the magazine or newspaper articles telling the adults how to trick their kids into begging treats instead of soaping windows? There aren't any.

Others vaguely say that the Irish and Scots brought similar traditions to the States in the 1840s--but the immigrants somehow didn't remember to actually send their kids go door to door until the 1930s. A tiny oversight.

Okay, I've actually done a bit of research. The "authorities" will tell you that the first use of the words "trick or treat" was in 1945. Or 1941. Or 1939. I've found it in use as early as 1935; one of my correspondents insists she trick-or-treated in 1933 in Southern California.

I've gone through stacks of ladies' magazines and children's magazines, and I've read miles of microfilm. It's pretty apparent that trick-or-treating began in the Depression when kids began dressing for Halloween as bums instead of ruining sheets to become ghosts. Combine little bums-for-an-evening with the time-honored Halloween traditions of ringing doorbells and either running into the darkness or smacking the answering homeowner in the face with flour, and you've got the primordial ooze from which trick-or-treating sprang.

Early trick-or-treating was a patchwork of traditions across the country. In some areas kids asked "Gimme a penny?" in others they said "Anything for Halloween?" or "Anything for the goblins?" Kids in some areas just shouted "Handout!" As near as I can determine, West Coast trick-or-treating in the Thirties followed the familiar pattern; while at least in some areas on the East Coast the saying was "tricks or treats" (or "tricks and treats"), and the kid was required to perform a "trick" in order to earn the treat--a dance, a song, or a nursery rhyme. The Midwest is a mystery; the only reference I have is that "Handout!" one, and that's from Texas--does Texas count?

And there's the rub. You see, I have lots of West Coast newspapers available to me here in Oregon, but I can't get any Midwest papers, and the only East Coast paper I can get--without spending tons of money and waiting months-is the New York Times. And if you believe what you find in that snooty rag, there never was such a thing as Halloween. Look at October 31 and November 1 in any other newspaper (it doesn't take long to go through a decade or two when you just have to look at two days), and you'll find every October 31 little articles quoting the local police chief's dire warnings to pranksters, and on November 1 you'll find articles listing the night's damage. And occasionally there will be a little treasure of an article that will tell you what Halloween was actually like.

Here's the damage report from the pre-trick-or-treat November 1, 1925 Medford [Oregon] Sun:

HALLOWEEN SPIRIT GIVEN FULL SWAY

Youth and Elders Celebrate Night of Ghosts

Small Boy Uses Soap and Horrid Faces; Spirits Do No Material Property Damage.

Old folks, young folks and little folks all took occasion to celebrate Halloween last night in various ways.

In keeping with one of the important dates on the social calendar, the old folks held masquerade dances, card parties, taffy pulls and what not.

The young folks made merry by motoring to dances, the boys especially worrying the city police and the populace in general. As in years gone by, the little ones wearing false faces and carrying hideous Jack-o-lanterns and draped in flowing white sheets stalked the streets in search of the innocent and the timid.

Far into the night, candle-light flickering through grotesque openings painstakingly cut into large yellow pumpkins, flitted from street to street and from window to window as groups of little ones wandered mysteriously about.

Some of the more daring traveled in couples and others alone, emitting at intervals blood-curdling screams and groans to throw into the unsuspecting the fears of the unknown. As the hours advanced they disappeared, as one by one they trekked homeward. Some were afraid, their candles having burned into nothingness. They ran, fell and stumbled homeward, leaving older ones to do that which they had not dared.

Police had issued a warning that merry-makers must be in by 12 o'clock, but challenging the word of law, boisterous youths continued on the streets, alleys and side streets to do their worst. It is not strange to say that many windows were soaped, paint was applied in places where it should not be, furniture removed to far places, and confusion caused in general.

Up to midnight no material damage had been reported to police, who seemed to have the situation well in hand, as several special motorcycle officers were on duty to prevent maudlin depredations. Until midnight the steady purr of their engines could be heard in various and scattered portions of the city [as] they surreptitiously rushed about.

Although the curfew bell rang as usual at 9 o'clock, no one heard it, all of the kids of the city, carried away by the spirit of the occasion, being exceptionally hard of hearing. However the police and parents heard the bell ring, and only smiled.

Hard to believe, huh? Before trick-or-treating, Halloween was a night when kids were actually encouraged to go out at night alone, and adults looked the other way as their kids got into various forms of mischief. What a different world. But all you have to do is look at the headlines of those newspapers to know that it wasn't a safer world for kids then.

But that's just one of the cool things I found. The problem is the pre- and early history of trick-or-treating. Is there anyone out there with enough courage to brave the library? All you have to do is walk in, ask the librarian where the microfilm is and how to use the microfilm reader, photocopy whatever strikes your interest, and let me know what you find.

Anyone out there?

Anyone?