The memories came flooding back last night when I was commenting on a card made for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge....a Halloween Card...now when I was a child and let me tell you that is neither here nor yesterday....many moons ago my friends.....children were allowed to be children. We used to get the biggest turnip (or neep as we call it here in Aberdeenshire) we could find (no pumpkins in those days) .....sometimes we asked the farmer but more often than not we stole it from the field.....to make our lantern... the kitchen was commandered for the rest of the night...newspaper spread on the floor and with the help of Dad because it was hard....hard work..we would scoop all the flesh out and then cut out holes for eyes, a nose and a mouth and the mouth had to have teeth...poor Dad...he had two to do. Let me tell you, the house stank of turnips for weeks after. Holes were poked in the side and string fitted for a handle and it had a lid. Inside had a little hollow for a candle.....yes a proper candle....none of your high falutin' tea lights in them thar days....imagine shock horror, wouldn't be allowed today....children near a naked flame.....If it was a windy night the bloody thing kept blowing out until one year my Dad came up with the brilliant idea of using a torch...it was never the same.
Great excitement as the big night approached and off we set my sister, me and a few friends all dressed up...we thought we were the bees knees and if I recall we gave more than a few neighbours near heart attacks....and you had to sing for your supper as they say...do a poem...tell a joke or sing a song....i think they just showered us with stuff to get us to shut up......now the purpose of this started off as "Penny for the Guy"......supposedly to collect money to buy fireworks but we were more interested in the bags of sweets and apples and such like and we each had a big pillowcase to stuff our loot in and it kept us going for weeks.
What a sad reflection on the society we live in today that children no longer seem to be allowed to be children.....apparently at a local nursery they are not allowed to celebrate Halloween...no witchy costumes or scary masks.....why..... because it is a pagan festival..... PLEEEEASE..... don't get me started....... and of course, what parent in their right mind nowadays would allow their kids to wander the streets in the dark calling at strangers' homes.......
In those times we didn't have computers, Wi's, mobile phones or the like but we had FUN...good old fashioned FUN.....and they really were the good old days.
Hope to get back later in the day with my Arty Girlz challenge card ...if Oliver co-operates and goes down for his afternoon nap......Love Kath xxxxx
Your post made me laugh, but it's so true and it drives me mad! They try and stop you celebrating ANYTHING incase of causing offence, why don't we just celebrate everything, that way no-one is left out or offended? Maybe I'm just greedy! xx
ReplyDeleteI know what you meean Kath its makes me mad. Where i live it is very small community an island, however when we get kids at halloween (accompanied by a parent) I have them dooking for apples outside the front door lol and we have to have a joke to get a treat
ReplyDeletelol you've made me nostalgic for my childhood now Kath! We used to use a neep as well, and it took forever didn't it? We used to go out guising too, and we never ever had shop bought outfits, we used to make our own :) Much more fun lol
ReplyDeleteHope you're having a fun day with Oliver
lotsalove
Amanda xx
I sympathise with you on this Kath. Here in the Netherlands the black servants of Sinterklaas (that's the guy who comes to Dutch children instead of Santa, on December 5th)are not supposed to be black any more. They have been black for hundreds of years and now it's discrimination. But somehow, white servants don't work.And that beside, little children don't discriminate against other people, so raise them wisely. Does this all makes sense?
ReplyDeleteEveline.
Kath your childhood halloween story is lovely. I understand where you are coming from with not getting started on certain things, i was lucky enough to be able to be able to dress up and go out on halloween, my kiddies wont know what it is to go and do that innocent fun! shame. i did let my daughter dress up a few years ago and drove her a few miles to nannys house so she could knock on the door! lol, just so she could try and experience the halloween thing!. i was meant to ask you in a comment before is it ok if i link your blog on mine?.xxx
ReplyDeleteHi Kath! I'm glad my little card brought back some memories, I totally agree with everything you've said, we definately had FUN! And I'm still here, having trailed the streets with me mates all those years ago asking for "Penny for the Guy"! xx
ReplyDeleteI hear you Kath..and what memories now come flooding back. Everything has to be so "PC" these days and its all so very one sided. talking of Pagans..my son is going out with the most lovely girl who is a pagan, her values and principles are as strong as mine and my sons, but she gets ridiculed for something that SHE feels right about.
ReplyDeleteAnyway...how many of you remember building tree houses in the woods miles from home and cooking your own food, swimming in streams, climbing trees, playing with wild animals (well...picking up hedgehogs...lol) talking to people ...anyone as long as they were friendly, sharing bottles of pop, eating sweets and packups and NOT washing our hands first...we are all still here in spite of it all..there's an email going around saying something very similar, and yes I miss those days
Oh you made the memories come flooding back! Great story Kath! Thanks for sharing that with us and helping all of us older folk to remember the "good old days" when kids were kids and so were the adults! ~chris
ReplyDeleteHi Kath..
ReplyDeletewell I` ve so missed you since my putor died a sudden death!!!lol...Well Im back now on a temp one...until I get me a new one...all techno stuff I dont flamin understand!!!lol...I mean dont get me wrong I loves the computor (I couldnt comunicate with all my fellow bloggers)but like you said in this post `Gone are those good old days`
I think it`s ridiculous nowdays "no this and no that"...
Well dont get me started neither!!!lol.....youll be wanting to go back for a nap if I start!!!rofl...
I loved reading your post we will be scraping the backends out of our pumkins for sure!!!!
`Thanks ` for always stopping by my friend:) and `Thanks` for my Award you are a sweetie...I will post it later...
Enjoy the rest of your Day:)
I`m off to catch up with your gorgeous creations!!!:)
Oh the memories.... make me feel all warm inside Kath. I'm the eldest of seven so the turnips were in abundance in our house...lol Good job my Dad liked his gardening :) The good thing was after the Halloween festivities were over there were always lots of half burned candles left over in case there was a power cut ....which happened quite often where we lived in the middle of nowhere:)
ReplyDeleteIt IS sad that kids don't experience the fun and freedom that we did and as for not allowing Halloween to be celebrated... don't get me started..it makes me so mad!!
Hiya Kath
ReplyDeleteYour post brings back memories of my dad scraping out the "neep" and putting a wee candle inside, my mum sewing me a costume and off we set round all friends and relations doing our wee party piece!
Where has it all gone wrong - the world is PC mad!
Dawn
x
Ohh this brings back memories. I remember duck apple and bob apple and how the tops of our lanterns used to go black with the candle - I can still smell it now!!! And yes, wasn't it hard flippin work scooping the turnips out. I've bent many a spoon doing that!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a shame the kids of today cant enjoy it like we did cos it isn't the same now. This PC crap is taking all the fun out of their childhoods -just my opinion.
There is no way on Gods green earth that I would let mine wander the streets now, and to be honest, some of these kids who go trick or tretating are 14 and 15 and they can really frighten older folk.
A few weeks back, my niece came round with her little lad who is 7 and he was getting a bit fidgety cos he was bored. So I took him in the garden, drew a hopscotch grid and showed him how to play it. Tell you what Kath - he loved it, and so did we lol xxx. But they don't do that now. I feel sorry for them actually cos they might have more in the way of material things than we did, but we had more FUN xxx
yes how true, everything is just tooo politically correct these days- ah bring back the good old days
ReplyDeleteAllisonX
Both my boys have celebrated Halloween at nursery each year and have both dressed up too!!! They love it!
ReplyDeleteYou're so right Kath. The world has gone mad.
ReplyDeletexxx
ps. we always had a turnip when we were kids too :o)