"Help the poor" or "Trick or Treat"?

[Eastburn]

When I was a kid growing up on the northeast side in the '50s, we always hollered "Help the poor" when begging on Halloween. I saw "Trick or Treat" used in comic books and movies but sure never heard it in my neighborhood.

I'm curious as to which expression was used in other parts of the city.

[reddog289]

My folks grew up in the 30's and 40's, Every Halloween they bring up how they used to say Help the poor.Me being 41 I don't ever remember saying that. It has been Trick or Treat.

[Hermod]

I never heard "Help the poor" except in Michigan and I have lived in a lot of different places. Growing up in Detroit, I only saw "Trick or treat" in comic books..

[gazhekwe]

Help the Poor in Brightmoor in the 50s. Trick or Treat in Chicago-Schaefer area in the 60s.

[Maof]

My folks grew up in the 30's and 40's, Every Halloween they bring up how they used to say Help the poor.Me being 41 I don't ever remember saying that. It has been Trick or Treat.

same here...........

[Corn.Bot]

"Trick or treat, help the poor," is what we'd call out to the doors of houses with their porch lights lit on Halloween. There were a couple of rhyme continuations but I have no clue how local these ditties were. I was too much of a wimp to actually sing them while begging for fear I wouldn't get a treat: "Trick or treat, help the poor, my pants are tore, gimme some money to buy some more;" and "Trick or treat, smell my feet, all the way across the street."

[Leroy Hoard]

I don't see how giving out candy helped the poor. They should have given out blocks of cheese or hunks of meat instead. And maybe some containers of milk or juice.

[MCP-001]

That's a new one one me.

I've always remembered 'Trick or Treat".

[oldredfordette]

Help the Poor and Trick or Treat in Old Redford.

[Valerie]

My experiences were much more recent, but I can't help but add that I remember saying,

"Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat. If you don't, I don't care, I'll pull down your underwear."

Classy- I know.

[Corn.Bot]

My experiences were much more recent, but I can't help but add that I remember saying,

"Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat. If you don't, I don't care, I'll pull down your underwear."

Classy- I know.

Oh, LOL, as I'd apparently blocked that version from my memory bank.

[5thSFGP]

"Help ther poor" was always the call when I was a kid. I didn't hear "Triock or treat" until much later. BTW, does anyone remember "Devil's Night" - the real one, not where you tried to tourch yours or your neighbor's house? We soaped a lot of windows, spilled a bunch of trash cans, etc.

[SWMAP]

"Help the Poor' appears to be associated with the celebration of the Catholic feasts of All saints [[November 1) and All Souls [[Novemmber 2). Hallow'een is "eve [[een) of All Hallows Day."
I picked the following up from a copyrighted essay on the internet by one A. Hunt-Anschultz. See especially the last sentence. Think its interesting that what appears to be an ancient call survived until at least the early 60's in Detroit.

"The medieval Catholic focus on the dead at the time of All Hallows Eve is at the root of Halloween as we know it.. By the fourteenth century a custom called 'souling' had developed in England in which the poor would go from house to house asking for soul-cakes. The better-off would give out small cakes or loaves in exchange for prayers for their dead relatives. Souling continued up until the twentieth century in some parts of Britain, though the ritual became increasingly secularised and was eventually relegated to children. Souling almost certainly forms the basis for American 'Trick or Treating'. Shakespeare uses the phrase 'to speak pulling like a beggar at Hallowmass'. I'll note that both of my parents, who grew up in Detroit, Michigan in the 40s and 50s, refer to the practice of trick-or-treating as 'begging' and to trick-or- treaters as 'beggars'. The phrase they used to ask for treats as children was 'Help the poor!"

[gazhekwe]

There is a folk song about that. Peter, Paul and Mary revived it in the 60s:

Soul Cake :
A soul, a soul cake, please good missus a soul cake.
An apple, a pear, a plum, a cherry,
any good thing to make us all merry,
A soul, a soul cake, please good missus a soul cake.
One for Peter, two for Paul, three for Him who made us all.
A soul, a soul cake, please good missus a soul cake.
An apple, a pear, a plum, a cherry,
any good thing to make us all merry,
God bless the master of this house, and the mistress also.
And all the little children that round your table grow.
The cattle in your stable and the dog by your front door.
And all that dwell within your gates
we wish you ten times more.
A soul, a soul cake, please good missus a soul cake.
An apple, a pear, a plum, a cherry,
any good thing to make us all merry,
A soul, a soul cake, please good missus a soul cake.

One for Peter, two for Paul, three for Him who made us all.
Go down into the cellar and see what you can find.
If the barrels are not empty we hope you will be kind.
We hope you will be kind with your apple and strawber’
For we’ll come no more a ’soalin’ till Xmas time next year.
A soul, a soul cake, please good missus a soul cake.
An apple, a pear, a plum, a cherry,
any good thing to make us all merry,
A soul, a soul cake, please good missus a soul cake.
One for Peter, two for Paul, three for Him who made us all.
I have a little pocket to put a penny in.
If you haven’t got a penny, a ha’ penny will do.
If you haven’t got a ha’ penny then God bless you.
A soul, a soul cake, please good missus a soul cake.
An apple, a pear, a plum, a cherry,
any good thing to make us all merry,
A soul, a soul cake, please good missus a soul cake.
One for Peter, two for Paul, three for Him who made us all.
[ Soul Cake Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ]

[Hermod]

" I'll note that both of my parents, who grew up in Detroit, Michigan in the 40s and 50s, refer to the practice of trick-or-treating as 'begging' and to trick-or- treaters as 'beggars'. The phrase they used to ask for treats as children was 'Help the poor!"

Same here. I grew up in Detroit 40s and 50s [[born in 39) we always talked about going "begging" and dressing like a tramp and using burnt cork for blackface was more common than dressing like a cartoon character and wearing a mask.

"Trick or treat" was something we heard about, but never used.

"Help the poor" was something done in a very moaning form of voice.

[SWMAP]

Wonderful connection to that folk song! And Hermod's connection to the "begger look" and going begging - that's just what we used too. We'd come home from school and root around the house to make outfits that we called 'bums" and we'd paint our faces. We were kind of amazed one year when our cousin from the next block came by as a gas pump - a real costume that he had made.

I connected our 'bum look" later with maybe my parent's memories of the Depression - but now I see that it was an ancient practice. So interesting that it survived in Detroit and not so much anywhere else as commentators can remember.

[ggores]

We'd run up to the jacko lantern-lighted porch, bang on the door and sing in unison:

"I see London, I see France, I see Stacy's underpants.

Not too big, not too small, just the size of Cobo Hall!!!!

Trick or Treat!"

circa 1974

[jcole]

NE side in the 60's was all 'Help the poor, my pants are tore, gimme some money to buy some more'.

[jackie5275]

I'll note that both of my parents, who grew up in Detroit, Michigan in the 40s and 50s, refer to the practice of trick-or-treating as 'begging' and to trick-or- treaters as 'beggars'. The phrase they used to ask for treats as children was 'Help the poor!"[/U]

My mom, who grew up in Corktown in the 30s & 40s, said they went begging and said "Help the poor". She said everyone around her neighborhood was poor, so the kids said "Help the poor". She said "Trick or Treat" didn't start until the late 50s or early 60s. Interestingly, when we were growing up in the 70s, my dad always made us be good during October by threatening to not let us go "Halloweening".

[Ray1936]

It was "Help the poor!" in my day in the forties. I guess, though, that both have been replaced with "Give it up, MF".

[jackie5275]

I guess, though, that both have been replaced with "Give it up, MF".

I've come close to experiencing that, especially from older "kids" with no costumes.

[jiminnm]

It was "Help the Poor" for us on the NE side in the 1950s, but it was an honest plea.

[Leroy Hoard]

I've come close to experiencing that, especially from older "kids" with no costumes.

There should be a height limit, sort of the reverse of what they have at amusement parks. Once you are big enough go on the rides, you are too big to go trick or treating.

[carolcb]

We said both - in the 60's in Wayne. The thing I remember most is going out for hours - filling one bag and then coming back for the second one. We were not afraid and had a blast - there was nothing to be afraid of. We did go in a group of 4 or 5 - candy lasted most of the year. It was a favorite holiday for sure. My mother always sewed my costume, and we did have a school day where we all wore them and paraded through all of the classrooms - not sure how that happened but it did.

[13074Glenfield]

East side, 1950s-60s..."Help the Poor." We called the process of going door to door asking for candy, "Begging" and most years, my brothers and I dressed as bums. Our costumes consisted of Dad's old coat and tie and a burned cork to put a "beard" on our fresh little faces.