Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Halloween History Countdown - Day 19

From the Bannatyne book:

"Young men and boys in America were especially fond of practical jokes and pranks, and the emergence of Halloween as a holiday for mischief must have been a cause for joy. Pranks of all sorts were popular. Boys would put a man's gate in his tree or lift his wagon to the roof of the barn. Pranksters blocked roads with logs, rail fences, and bails of hay. They built a pulley advice from a string and a button that made rapping noises on a window while they hid, watching the maddening effects on their victim. Bags of flour were poised over doors to plummet on the first person through the doorway; sty gates disappeared, allowing pigs and cows to escape into the street; rocking chairs hung from the trees."

I like the pulley. That's brilliant.

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