Devil’s Night in America

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:45:58 +0000

Devil’s Night traditionally is the night before Halloween. It is a somewhat popular night in the United States and in Europe. This night, also called Mischief night, Cabbage Night, or Goosey Night, is the night that all the tricks from the term “trick or treat” are performed. Most of the tricks are harmless pranks, and typically include the egging of homes or cars, throwing rolls of toilet paper into the trees, and the waxing or soaping of the windows on your house or automobile. In some areas, fires have been reported, but these were mostly in the Detroit and New Jersey areas. This tradition has been going on for many years and continues to this day, with mostly teenagers being the culprits.
When I was growing up in the late 1970’s and the early 1980’s, Devil’s Night seemed to be more popular then that it is today, but that may just be my age catching up with me. Back then, it consisted of the soaping or waxing of windows with a bar of soap or a candle, the smashing of pumpkins, and the throwing of eggs. Throwing toilet paper in trees was also a common occurrence. The throwing of eggs started to decline in the 1980’s due to the fact that the local grocery stores in my hometown wouldn’t allow anyone under the age of 18 to buy eggs for a few days coming up to Halloween. They actually carded you when you were buying eggs. I could still buy a pack of cigarettes for my mother, but was carded for a dozen eggs. That was really messed up. I personally only participated in the smashing of a pumpkin here or there, and assisted a few of my friends as a driver in a “drive by egging” when I reached my later teenage years. One of my friends was almost a year older that the rest of us, and was able to buy eggs for our little drive by trips. This stopped when he decided to throw an egg out of his car and forgot to roll down the window. The car was full of teenage hormones and we all laughed and laughed as it dawned on him that he was guilty of egging his own car.
There was this street that many of the teenage youths in my town made a pilgrimage to on Devil’s Night, including myself. This street, called Pease Road, has a cemetery located on it. It was the typical old cemetery or “spooky cemetery” that no one had been buried in for many years, so some of the tombstones were dirty and leaning over in disarray. There were overgrown shrubs and bushes on the perimeter, which added to the spooky feel. This cemetery was at one of the tallest points in the town, which was probably a good thing, and the town I grew up in was known for having many quarries, and those quarries wound up being filling with water. Anyone who has seen the Poltergeist movie knows that water and dead bodies don’t mix. My street, Prospect Street, intersected with this other street, Pease Road, where the cemetery was. This steep hill, called Cemetery Hill, was where many a pumpkin rolled down to meet their eventual demise. On the day after Devil’s night, there were always a few dozen pumpkins splattered at the bottom of the hill. With their innards scattered everywhere, it made for a gruesome sight, even thought they were only pumpkins. And I was always anxious to get to school to hear the scuttlebutt about who was at Cemetery Hill on Devil’s night, and to see whose house got egged or whose yard had toilet paper hanging from the trees.
Devil’s Night still happens today, and tonight, I’ll be keeping a close eye on my car and the trees in my yard. With my flashlight in hand, I’ll make a few extra trips outside to inspect my property. And of course, I will do no driving after dark. I don’t want to “egg” on anyone who might want to throw something at my car. However, the perpetual teenager in me still wants to toss a few rolls of “TP” through the trees in the yard of the nasty neighbor, just to feel that rush again, as I did oh so long ago.

Socyberty » Cabbage Night

Devil’s Night in America