If you lived in Detroit back when the neighborhoods were full, tell us about trick or treat night!
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If you lived in Detroit back when the neighborhoods were full, tell us about trick or treat night!
I lived on the lower East Side in the late 40's, 50's and 60's. As a kid, from 1947 through 1955 or so, we would walk on our own block, from Vernor to Kercheval, both sides. All, and I mean all, the neighbors had their porch lights on or had pumpkins lit up. They gave candy, and sometimes even pennies or five nickels taped up [[you can't imagine the excitement we all felt when we got money!). We'd fill our bags, go home and empty them on the living room floor. Then we'd head out again, this time, we'd go up to Jefferson, hit the bars, the Chinese Teapot Restaurant, the bowling alley, all the small Mom and Pop restaurants up to St. Jean, and hit every block from St. Jean back home....Lillibridge, Fairview, Lemay, Montclair, Harding. Half the time, we could go without our parents. I remember hearing the leaves crunching under our feet and the crispness in the air and the smell of burning leaves.
No one molested us, no one bullied us, everyone watched out for all of us. Those were the days that I remember with such fondness. Detroit was such a great City back then.
These are my happy memories, as well. The day/time/event wasn't very commercial. Our mother's didn't make costumes - there were too many of us - and so we pretty much came home from school and raided closets. We were gypsies and "bums" with lots of make-up and carried pillow case bags for candy. We yelled out "Help the poor," not "trick or treat." The older we got the farther we roamed into the neighborhood. It really was a Norman Rockwell painting with little goblins and ghouls running up to all the houses where the lights were on and the adults were standing in the door. We did have a kind of snobbery in the '60's about wrapped candy. Some of the older neighbors went to all the trouble of making bags of caramel corn or crafting popcorn balls - but we turned up our noses at those offerings. I smile about that now as I remember. How sweet the old people were to spend the time making the old-fashioned Halloween treats and how we only wanted the brand-name stuff.
Well, this is an Ohio story sorry. I must have been 10 years old. A group of us went trick or treating in our neighborhood, we all had a good bag full of candy but somehow one in our group nabbed almost two bags. He went on ahead of us quite a distance. A car drove by us and stopped when it got to our friend in the distance - four high school girls jumped out of the car, knocked him down and stole his bags of candy. He even got a bit banged up.
Gruesome - mugged by a bunch of girls. I wonder if he remembers it?? Ha!
Okay back to some Detroit stories
Yep, it was "Help the poor", not "Trick or Treat" back then. Costumes were original, that's for sure. Grandpa would burn a cork and we'd apply it to our faces to make us look like we had a beard. In the late 40's and early 50's, we took all the homemade cookies or fudge we could get....we didn't have the fear then that came in the later years. When we took our kids out in the 70's, we threw away all the unwrapped stuff or cookies.Quote:
Originally Posted by SWMAP
There was always a dentist in our neighborhood that gave toothbrushes with flouride toothpaste.
How about Devil's Night before people used it as an excuse to burn vacant houses. Ringing doorbells, soaping windows and running like hell...
It was all about the pillow case and who could fill it faster.
Man, I remember that trick like it was yesterday. I really miss the smell of burning leaves too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Buy American
I did most of my Trick or Treating up and down E. Jefferson between Conner and Alter in the 50's. We collected so much candy we still had candy at Christmas. Some of my favorite stops were Sanders where we had candied apples dipped in Sanders famous caramel topping. Also the Detroit Bank and Trust on the corner of Piper and Jefferson where we each had one chance to dip into the penny jar and scoop out at many pennies as we could with one hand. At the Cinderella theater we got a free box of popcorn. I don't know where the kids in my old neighborhood are trick or treating now because there are so few business left and there aren't that many houses left.
I remember trick or treating as a kid in the 70s with all the tainted candy scares every year. Many police stations would let you bring your candy in to have it x-rayed for razor blade, needles, etc. We never went, but I wonder now how much more safe your candy was knowing it was exposed to radiation to look for metal objects in it?
So we had the fake beards with burnt soot from an old cork smeared on our faces and raggedy clothes, and we went door-to-door crying "feed the poor." We were "bums."Quote:
Originally Posted by old guy
And then four brothers from the other end of the street came out, all cleaned up in their first communion suits,and went door to door. The adults would ask them why they were not dressed up like bums. Their reply was, "We're the Millionaires."
There was a tv show around the same time called "The Millionaire."
I recall one Halloween when I was sick...I had the measels and couldn't go out. Word got around among my friends, and after everyone was done, a couple friends showed up at our door with a bunch of candy for me. Many of the kids on my block had generously given me some of their precious candy. Made me feel a lot better about having to sit and watch out the window while my friends went from house to house.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MidTownMs
Can you imagine any bank doing that now?
Stromberg2
My first year of trick or treating was probably 65 or 66, when I was 5 or 6. I don't remember ever going out with mom or dad. My two sisters [[one 2 yrs younger, one 2 yrs older) and I usually went together, along with some friends. I don't remember anyone going with their parents back then, though it may have been done. You generally didn't go til you were 5 or so, then you went with siblings and/or friends. We always used pillowcases, and by our time you said 'trick or treat', with some kids adding something goofy on [['smell my feet', etc). I may have bought a costume once, Spiderman or something like that, but usually we 'made' our own costumes. I was either a bum or a football player from what I remember, using the burnt cork on the face for the bum outfit. We covered a pretty big area, covering Winthrop, Forrer, Prevost, Rutherford, Mansfield and St Marys, between Grand River and Chalfonte, and also did Chalfonte and Hackett as well. We left the house as soon as it was getting dark, somewhere around 6:00, and got home around 8:30-9:00 or so from what I can remember. We would each dump our candy on the living room floor in huge piles and sort it out, and then trade with eachother. St Marys of Redford always had a big candy sale every year, that's where we would buy all of our candy to hand out. The grade school kids would get lists with all the types of candy that was for sale, and we'd go door to door getting neighbors to buy it. There was a contest for who sold the most. We didn't collect money, just had the people sign a sheet saying what they wanted. I can remember going to the gym just before Halloween, that's where the 'customers' went to pick up the candy and pay for it. My dad always worked at the gym that day selling the candy to the people who came in. I think that sale was sponsored by the Dads Club.
Beggar heyday, mid 50's, very early 60's. I was nearly on the Harper Woods, GPW, Detroit line.
Dad had a old actors makeup kit, glue on beards, goatees, etc. used gum spirits as glue...I can still remember the smell of that nasty stuff.
Had few store bought costumes, I remember being a hobo, Abe Lincoln, ghost using a sheet and one year pops made me look like Robbie the Robot using boxes, cut up egg cartons, tinfoil, etc.
Amount of kids on the street in those years was enormous, the sidewalks were packed. I'd work the streets of all 3 places I named above. The convent at Queen of Peace always gave really good stuff, and word would spread quickly about who was giving out actual change. We always tried to hit those places at least twice, more if we could get away with it. :p
The houses that gave out pennies and nickels, we'd remember, & there were two folks who gave out the outrageous sum of dimes. WOOT! Bags of chips, Lick-m-Aid, & Nestles chocolate were always high on my list of desired goodies.
Always used a pillowcase, never a bag and by the time I got to 8-9 I'd work so fast I could get a case and a half filled before the night was done. Me and a couple buddies were always one of the last kids off the streets.
Oh yeah...no razorblades/needles in those days. Anyone who does that ought be shot.
Homemade stuff like popcorn balls, candy apples & fruit would be plentiful.
And it was always help the poor for me. Fond memories....albeit a little fuzzy these days.
Reading this thread to my mother who grew up on Lakeview [[between Kercheval and Vernor), in the late 40s thru early 60s, she fondly remembers all of these "Eastside Halloween Memories". She also mentioned all of the kids going to the potato chip shop next to Cinderella Theater for little bags of chips as well, but can't seem to recall the name of that shop.
Lived on Haverhill during 1950's and early 60's. Holloween was always a treat where we ranged the neighborhoods yelling "help the poor". We didn't have to worry about our safety in those days - just fun. Devil's Night was an opportunity to soap windows, ring door bells and run like heck - burning vacant houses wasen't even a consideration - not that there were vacant homes. Detroit was really a great place to live - back then anyway.
Cedaschke, were you a St. Martin's kid?
Change the above from "Haverhill" to "Sorrento" and "1950's and early 60's" to "1940's and early 50's" and that would be my post. Well said, Cedaschke!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by CEDASCHKE
Mid 1950's to mid 60's, we always went out as soon as it started getting dark, using pillow cases. We generally covered an area East to West bounded By Wyoming, Intervale, Meyers and Davison, but sometimes if it wasn't late or we were tried we'd venture over to Appoline, Steel, Sorrento, Ward and Cheyenne. Although the best places for loot were Al Pisa Pharmacy, Hank & Pauls Standard on Schoolcraft & Pinehurst, Safer Drugs, Tower Bowling Alley, the Booby Trap Bar on Meyers, Meyers Beer Garden, Superior Potato Chips Co on Birwood & Intervale...just to name a few...AH!!!.. the good old days
We never did anything to damage any ones property, never threw things at passing cars or peoples homes, never pulled the corner fire box, never used wax...soap would wash off, wax wouldn't, besides people would soon find out who did what....parents back then had an amazine network of finding shit out..... but we'd soap all the storefronts on Schoolcraft, certain peoples car windows, ring numerous door bells. The one time we build a barricade with garbage cans across Kendal because it was a dimly lit street. Although, when I was in High School, we had a guy down the block who was a prof at WSU, just a real jeck with everyone, an uppity asshole, well myself and bunch of other guys from the hood picked up and turned his little Renalt Daulphine car sideways in the drive between the houses. When we went to school the next morning, as a couple of us were walking by to catch the Wyoming bus and scout car crew from #14 were taking a report, the one officer stopped us "Grinning Like a Chessire Cat" asked us if we knew anything about this and all we said was " No Sir...Sorry"
I once received a roll of Rolaids!Quote:
Originally Posted by GPCharles
Poisoned and tampered candy given to kids on Halloween is an old urban legend.
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/poison/halloween.asp
No. Went to Wayne, St Matthew and then Austin.
No trick-or-treaters this year :[[
I could have given out gold bricks and wouldn't have lost a thing. LOL!
I too had no kids. My parents live in Rosedale and had a couple humdred. Go figure.
Best Devil's Night Trick:
1. Get a spool of extra strong black thread.
2. Find a sturdy stick about 6 inches long.
3. Tie the thread to the middle of the stick.
4. Insert the stick into a neighbor's door knocker.
5. Unwind the spool of thread as you back all the way across the street and into a good hiding place.
6. Take up the slack and knock like hell.
7. Release a lot of slack.
8. Watch neighbor come out and look around.
9. Repeat steps 6 and 7.
When I used to celebrate Halloween. My parents wouldn't let me trick or treat in the ghettohoods of Detroit due the robberies and other tricks. So I went to West Bloomfield TWP neighborhoods and did my trick or treating there. Boy those rich white folks have some very gourmet chocolates to give away.
Christ.....Quote:
Originally Posted by Danny