From: jlysagh@hubcap.clemson.edu (james joseph lysaght)
Subject: Re: Halloween
Organization: Clemson University
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 16:49:39 GMT

FURRJK@vtvm1.cc.vt.edu (Joel Furr) writes:

>No, we don't need to bring up the old 'did you hear about the people that
>poison candy on Halloween' UL.  I recall reading in one of Jan Harold
>Brunvand's books that research had shown NO reported cases of either poisoned
>candy or candy with razor blades or needles inside.  The only thing that
>came CLOSE was one particularly evil father who had killed his own son by
>poisoning the kid's candy and then blaming it on anonymous ghouls out
>in the city somewhere.

Must have been pretty poor research.  When i lived up near Philadelphia
there were SEVERAL case of people who put needles in candy on holloween.
I lived in springfield and for a couple of years the town set up a table
when the kids were all expected to stop by and have their candy
examined by police.  It was all sent through an xray machine like
bagages at the airport and then parents were also told to cut all the
candy in small enough pieces before letting the kids eat it.  We had many
cases of candy found with pins and needles.  Trick or Treat was
eventually banned from the town because the high level of danger that
arose from it (although lots of kids kept doing it).  I even found some neddles in a few of my candy bars.
 
>place if ever there was one, the parents of Athens, Georgia used to do some-
>thing that really puzzled me.  On Halloween, we students would be bumming
>around our apartments, doing homework, not thinking anything of the occasion,
>when we'd hear car doors slam and see kids spilling up the sidewalk towards
>our buildings.  Yeah, that's right: parents would bring their kids to the
>apartment communities where all the students lived and let their kids go
>from door to door in each building

Here at Clemson different student groups arange to bring kids through
the dorms for Trick or Treat.  Anyone who is interested in giving out
candy signs up on a list and then each kid that comes for Trick or Treat
is escorted by a student who has a copy of the list and takes them only
to the rooms participating so as not to disturb the other students.  A
lot of people particiapte too.  I did one year, it was kind of fun!


Incidentally, I went to catholic school when I was a kid and the Nuns
hated the whole concept of dressing up like devils and told us all sorts
of stories of how satan is more powerful on holloween and we put
ourselves at greater risk of demonic posession when we dress up in the
costumes and tried to scare us out of doing it.  At the same time though
they would give us little boxes and ask us to collect for UNICEF while
we were trick or treating. After you get your candy at each house you
were supposed to ask them for money for the starving children of the
world. It was a nice gesture but most people got offended, after all,
they just gave you free candy and now you want money?!  I always
thought the nuns dislike of holloween was strange since they also tought
us that holloween was created by the catholic church many Many MANY
years ago as All Hollow Eve, the night before All Souls Day.

Jim
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories