Halloween used to be a terrible time

It’s human nature to think that everything was always better in the ‘good old days’. Politicians build entire campaigns on that idea.

Overall, the premise crumbles under control. This is especially true when it comes to Halloween. It is a topic worthy of some reflection.

Consider this irritated editorial from the Deseret News, published on October 23, 1936:

“The time was when Halloween was celebrated on that one night,” it said. “Grotesque costumes, pumpkins, cornstalks, cider and donuts, and false faces characterized the parties most often given for the young, and sometimes for their elders…

‘But now look at the children! Soap smeared on car finishes, electric bulbs stolen from outdoor lights, garden hoses cut or dragged away, birdbaths knocked over and broken, milk bottles smashed and thrown into the street, lawns trampled, shrubs pulled out – all vandalism of the most irritating kind in the name of a holiday. And that will continue for another week.”

Where are the parents?

The writer ended with a lament: “Where are their parents?”

Their parents… ahm… your grandparents, great-great-grandparents or perhaps great-great-grandparents, that is, probably looked the other way and remembered their own younger years better than that editorial writer.

How do I know? Because you can search even further back (like I did, via newspapers.com) and find pretty much the same thing. In 1922, the Long Beach Telegram reported that one resident suffered property damage worth $150 (almost $3,000 in today’s terms).

“The total property loss suffered by the community is far from insignificant,” the paper said. “There is nothing funny about it… the vandalism has to be curbed somehow.”

In 1918, a streetcar conductor in Kansas City was seriously injured after some youths waxed the tracks up a hill. The car skidded backwards and crashed into a tram behind it.

Devil’s night

Yes, I know Halloween vandalism still happens. In Detroit, as recently as the 1990s, people took the opportunity to burn down vacant houses. It was Called Devil’s Night. Reports say fires are now rare there, but vandalism still occurs in some places.

But in the 1930s, even small towns had far more tricks than treats. In 1932, the Democrat-Herald in Albany, Oregon, published population of about 8,500lamented that “significant damage has been caused to property simply on the basis of causing damage to property without any motive other than destruction….”

When you hear complaints about Halloween these days, it’s mostly about excesses or adult participation, or about teenagers still going door to door for candy. Our ancestors would have been happy if that was all they had to worry about.

Today’s Halloween excesses

According to the National Retail FederationAmericans are expected to spend $11.6 billion on Halloween this year. That’s slightly less than last year’s $12.2 billion, but well below the $184 billion they expected to spend on Christmas last year.

But only about a third of Halloween spending, or $3.8 billion, goes on costumes. Another $3.8 billion will be spent on decorations, some of which will decorate homes in ways that rival Christmas, while $3.5 billion will be spent on candy and $0.5 billion on greeting cards.

Before you get upset about this kind of expense, or the many adult costumes included in that figure, not to mention the costumes for dogs and catsThink how much better this is than spending money on fixing broken things or tearing up lawns. Voluntary expenses are always better than unexpected expenses for repairs.

Sometime in the early 1950s, Halloween changed. Maybe it had something to do with the new Peanuts comic strip and its depictions of trick-or-treating, but it’s probably more complicated than that. In 1953, the Deseret News said of vandalism, “That’s old-fashioned now.”

We should all be grateful.

So if you’re disturbed on Thursday by encountering Little Bo Peep behind the counter of a bank or the Big Bad Wolf behind the cash register at your grocery store, just remember that things used to be much worse.