I grew up in Des Moines, Iowa.  Back when I was a kid (early 1960’s) when you went trick-or-treating, you had to tell a joke/riddle to get your treat.

I can remember sweating bullets trying to select the very best joke out of my repertoire for trick-or-treat night.

My younger sister and I were allowed to purchase a mask but not a costume.  Instead of a costume, we got paper bags from the local Hy-Vee grocery store.  We would use our crayons and decorate the bag as our costume.  We would then use scissors and cut out arm holes and a head hole (from the bottom of the bag) and Wallah!  One trick-or-treat costume.

That was a very long time ago.  Obviously.

These days, with all the plastic bags and all, that wouldn’t work.  Most of the time, you cannot find the kind of masks we wore back then either!  They would be considered unsafe and a suffocation hazard.

I remember going from house to house in my neighborhood.  “Why did the man put his car in the oven?  Because his cake was in the garage.”   “Why did the man throw the butter out of the window?  He wanted to see a butterfly.”  “What’s the biggest pencil in the world?  Pennsylvania.”

Rest assured, my young 4,5 or 6 year old noggin’ did not come up with these beauties all by itself. I had help.

We had a kiddie show afternoons on channel 13.  The Floppy Show with Duane Elliott.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Floppy_Show   I loved that show!  This was my source of jokes.  If you were a lucky enough of a kid to get on the show, you could tell a joke a “Beep” Floppy’s nose!

Duane Elliot was a wannabe ventriloquist and Floppy was his puppet.  A dog.  It was awesome!  I always wanted to be on that show.  You could have your birthday party there and be on the show.  That never happened for me.  Sad Panda.

But anyway, I digress…This was THE show to learn your jokes for trick-or-treat!  A never ending supply of material!  And cartoons to boot!  We would hear a few jokes, lucky kids would get to “Beep” Floppy’s nose and then we would watch some Bugs Bunny.

Life was good!

Imagine my surprise when I moved to another part of the country!  I was living on my own now and it was trick-or-treat night.  I was ready.  I had the bottomless bowl of candy and I was ready for some good jokes.

I found out that about the only place in the country where you told jokes to get your piece of candy was Des Moines, Iowa.

How about that!

The little kids came to the door, held out their bags, and I asked for their jokes.  They looked at me like I was from Mars!  I am a quick study though, and stopped expecting the jokes and just passed out the treats.  It was a let down to be sure.

Fast forward to 1989 and taking #1 Daughter trick-or-treating for the first time.  She was 20 months old and #1 Son was one month old. We were living in Chicago at the time.

I was pulling #1 Son in a wagon in his car seat and #1 Daughter was walking along side me.  Both of the kids were bundled up.  It was a chilly night.  They had on face paint.  Masks were frowned upon now as being unsafe.

#1 Daughter had a HUGE plastic pumpkin bucket and was carrying it proudly.  She was apprehensive as to just what was going on.  I tried to assure her that she was going to like this.  A lot.

#1 Daughter really only knew one word at this time.  “Boo!”  Everything was “Boo.”  The dog.  Pumpkins.  Pumpkin pie was “Boo pie.”  So, she walks up to the first house and I ring the doorbell.

This very nice lady came to the door and made the usual, “What a sweet little girl.” speech.  That’s when #1 Daughter held out her pumpkin bucket and said, “Boo!”

The lady melted.

“How Adorable!!!”

Then, she took two fistfulls of candy and deposited them in the large pumpkin bucket.

THAT is when #1 Daughter figured out just what we were doing.  Haha!  What a kid!  No more of having her Mommy ring the doorbell.  That kid marched solidly up to the doors, rang doorbells when she could reach them.  If she couldn’t reach them, she banged on the doors with her little fist.

She would hold out that pumpkin bucket (which was filling up pretty darned fast!) and say, “Boo!”

People loved her.  She scored big!  That pumpkin bucket was filled to the tippy top.

I guess you don’t NEED a joke to get a lot of candy!

Happy Halloween, all!   🙂