Some of us grew up in areas with slightly different traditions. We used to trick-or-treat on October 30 and this was called Beggar's Night. And this meant that sometimes parents would take us to another town on Halloween that held trick-or-treat on October 31. Imagine two nights of dressing up and getting candy. What a racket.
When I got old enough to trick-or-treat with my friends and not my older sister, we had a blast. Right down to daring anyone to try knock on the door of Mary Moonshine. Mary lived in what was essentially a falling down shack on what we used to call Dump Road. No houses near her, she didn't have a car so there was no driveway. Just a ramshackle building twenty feet or so from the road. I don't believe she was on the grid for water or sewer. I know for a fact she didn't bath often or comb her ratty gray hair. Because occasionally you'd be in the corner store and she'd come in clutching her coins. Her appearance would always make us kids abandon our candy buying shopping spree. If you walked by her place in a group, you felt brave and would maybe shout out comments. But if you alone, you walked on the other side of the street and walked really, really fast. Looking back, I'm sure she was mentally ill or developmentally challenged. I have no idea what happened to her. I never knew anyone who took the dare to knock on her door. Just one day the town crew knocked down her shack and hauled off the pieces to the dump.
Just a random falling down shack photo I found on the 'net for atmosphere...
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