# Tricks on 10/31 - common in your area?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tricks-on-10-31-common-in-your-area/378629>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [October 31, 2006, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tricks-on-10-31-common-in-your-area/378629 "2006-10-31T19:44:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2006, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tricks-on-10-31-common-in-your-area/378629/1 "2006-10-31T19:44:31Z")

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I have lived all my life (so far) in the same area. Trick or treat has never been about the “trick” part at all. I don’t remember being a part of, or even witnessing second hand, any vandalism related to getting no/not enough/yucky candy at a particular house. I heard stories of soaped windows, egged houses and toilet papered lawns, but those were things that would have been done anyway. Halloween just meant you had a good excuse to be out late and in disguise so one may as well kill 2 birds with one stone.

What’s the scoop where you’re from (or where you are)?

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**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2006, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tricks-on-10-31-common-in-your-area/378629/2 "2006-10-31T20:07:37Z")

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[QUOTE=Doctor Jackson]  
I have lived all my life (so far) in the same area. Trick or treat has never been about the “trick” part at all. I don’t remember being a part of, or even witnessing second hand, any vandalism related to getting no/not enough/yucky candy at a particular house. I heard stories of soaped windows, egged houses and toilet papered lawns, but those were things that would have been done anyway. Halloween just meant you had a good excuse to be out late and in disguise so one may as well kill 2 birds with one stone.

What’s the scoop where you’re from (or where you are)?  
[/QUOTE]

The tricks when I was a teenager mostly all happened on what we called “cabbage night” which is October 30th. My own mother used to supply me with shaving cream and toilet paper. :eek: I really don’t see mischief on that night like when I was a kid (20 plus years ago).

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**Author:** ![Queen\_Tonya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/4491bb/32.png) [@Queen\_Tonya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Tonya)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tricks-on-10-31-common-in-your-area/378629/3 "2006-11-01T00:08:03Z")

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We call the 30th Devil’s night, although since it’s Detroit the vandalism runs toward TPing in the burbs and arson in the city. I usually only see one or two houses a year get toilet papered, it’s almost always done by someone the family knows.

Five or six years ago there was a spate of spray-painted graffiti on houses, cops never caught anyone. It was in the few weeks before Halloween, so pretty doubtful that they’d been nursing grudges from the previous year.

There’s a house down my street that deserves…something. Decorations in the windows, carved jack-o-lanterns lit up on porch, front light on and a sign saying “No candy, Happy Holiday!” I’m not saying I advocate vandalism, I’m just saying I’d understand.