[Magdalen] And so it begins...

[Sibyl Smirl]

On 11/27/15 10:23 AM, Roger Stokes wrote:
>
> The other American import we lamented was trick or treat which is not so
> well organized as a fun children's activity over here as I believe it is
> in the US.  Teens and adolescents see it as an excuse for causing mayhem
> and general disturbance to others, as well as low-level damage in some
> cases.

I had thought that Guy Fawkes' Day included an analogy to Trick or 
Treat?  ("A penny for the Guy"?).  But of course I've never lived or 
even visited there.

However, your sentence beginning, "Teens and adolescents..." is quite 
standard here.  When my mother was a small child, turning over outhouses 
(privys) was a standard thing, and men were occupied on the morning 
after putting them back up.  At one point, a gang of boys (including at 
least one or two of her brothers) were intending to push over their own 
family outhouse, at the same time that her father, unbeknownst to the 
boys, was using it.  He gave a yell when he felt it begin to rock (he 
was a large and tough miner), and they ran like hell.  Soaped windows 
were also standard, frequently with obscenities, even when I was young 
(again, almost exclusively boys), unrolling toilet paper all over yards 
(called "tp-ing"), very difficult to clean up in wet weather, and other 
minor damage.  Spray cans of paint are much worse than soap.  The 
rationale behind this was a revenge for "no treat", but it was very 
thin, and seldom had much connection.

-- 
Sibyl Smirl
I will take no bull from your house!  Psalms 50:9a
mailto:polycarpa3 at ckt.net