the gate stealing tradition

[fflo]

I guess there was once a gate stealing tradition.  Maybe it died out with the popularity of gates.  Or the cracking down on vandalism.

 

Comments

[tediousandbrief.livejournal.com]

There was! My grandfather and I were once watching the film "Meet Me in Saint Louis" and they have a Halloween bit in there where the kids were stealing random items from people and burning them and just making mischief. I don't remember if they were stealing gates, but I wouldn't be surprised.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

I knew nothing about the gate stealing aspect of Halloween. Go figure.

[coconuthead.livejournal.com]

This is new to me.

My dad and brothers used to have a tradition of stealing their friend's van and cramming it full of baler twine. Sometimes they would also put a big rock on the driver's side — less need for baler twine that way.

Once Dad stole an outhouse and put it on this friend's front lawn. The bored, unambitious teenagers in the neighborhood got blamed for it.

Ahhh, small town life!

[lynn82md.livejournal.com]

Not to just stealing gates, but making mischief in general. Vandelisim was common. Of course, the common form of vandelism now on Halloween is toilet papering or throwing eggs at someone's house, especially if they didn't give candy or whatever treats they were offering.

The vandelism from back then was...well, what you see at a college football game sometimes where they set things on fire. I read that it had gotten so horrible at one point that it was considered to outlaw Halloween in the U.S.

This was brought a bit over from Ireland when the Irish immigranted to the U.S and Canada since Halloween (as we know it today) began there, but the vandelism hadn't been as bad in Ireland as the U.S and Canada. This was all based on how trick or treating began. If you went to someone's house and asked for food, you gave them good luck if they did and bad luck if they didn't.

I read most of this from "Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night" by Nicolas Rogers.

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

Consarned kids these days! Not stealing and burning peoples' property! What's this world coming to?

[fflo.livejournal.com]

I like how tickled you are to be an old fart saying "consarned". It rather undercuts the mean-man flavor of the expression.

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

Dagnabbit! "Consarned" is prospector talk, not mean old man talk!

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Ah, now you're dead-on, with the crotchetiness of the prospector.