I remember lots of things that happened when I was seven or eight years old. I do not remember celebrating Halloween during those years on the farm. We had no close neighbors. Halloween wasn't mentioned in school either.

All Saints Day on November 1st is celebrated in the Catholic church. Masses are offered to shorten their departed ones' time in Purgatory. October 31 is All Hallows Eve. We know it as Halloween. Ghosts and goblins supposedly roam the earth causing trouble. Do Trick or Treaters cause trouble? We did.

I was about twelve years old when I first went Trick or Treating in Bay City, Michigan. None of us wore costumes. A cold wind was usually blowing in off Saginaw Bay and it was probably spitting snow as well. Bundled up in heavy coats and toboggans, it was a time for going door to door begging for candy.

“Trick or Treat” was a literal term. “Give us a treat or we will do a trick,” we yelled as we knocked on doors in our neighborhood. The trick part worked both ways. We might receive homemade fudge with black pepper in it or salt added to another homemade candy. This was in the days before “fun size bars of Milky Way or Butterfingers". UNICEF was unheard of. Five cents for a Milky Way bar made it too expensive to give. Apples, popcorn balls, homemade candy and wrapped penny candy was it. We never received anything that would hurt us, such as razor blades or needles. It was a safer, more gentler time.

If a porch light was not on, no treats would be offered there. Either they weren't home or were too elderly to take part in the ritual. But sometimes there was someone at home. As kids, we figured they were too cheap to give out treats, so we would definitely do a trick. Some carried slivers of soap to mark up the porch windows of darkened houses. It was fun to do, but only if you weren't caught.

I remember the time we used soap on a darkened porch window. We were busy doing our dirty work when the door burst open and an irate man came out and began screaming at us. He had been sitting in his darkened house waiting for troublemakers like us. My brothers ran, but my feet were glued to the floor. It took me quite a while to remove the soap with him standing over me shouting what a mean miserable kid I was. Did that make me a miserable mean kid? No more soaping windows for me.

Years later, Halloween pranks had broaden in scope. I remember a meat market that had a life-sized artificial bull outside near the curb. The next morning the bull was found atop the roof of a nearby school. It made the front page of the local newspaper. After that, the bull was log-chained in place.

It was fun to pass out candy to the little ghosts and goblins who came to our door. Later, when we lived in the country, we would load up our kids and head to town. Parked, we walked them door to door. At home the fun began. The pillowcase full of treasure would be dumped out onto the kitchen table. “Let's see what you got!” We shared at our house.