Halloween Beano 1967

[Lew Stringer]

Well, not exactly a Halloween Beano, as it wasn't really celebrated much in the UK in the sixties, but here's Biffo the Bear in 1967 with his turnip lantern....

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/ ... urnip.html

(Yep, in the UK back then, turnips were carved out, not pumpkins.)

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

Yes, I have this copy, Lew----and I have a vague memory of the actual BEANO first time around, when I was five. I have 'misfiled' my own copy, or I likely would have put it on Facebook today.....



Back in those days, kids used to go around in groups knocking on strangers' doors, without parents keeping an eye on them, which shows just how much attitudes have changed------we also used to carve out a large turnip [ or 'neep' as they are called here in Oor Wullie-land] and add a cut-out face, with a candle inside, for lighting effects----very creepy when seen in the dark.

If it was windy, the candle kept going out, and of course the smell used to be really bad, of burnt raw vegetables!


The term 'trick-or-treat' was only ever heard of in Bugs Bunny cartoons in those far-off days.

I do appreciate the much more cartoonized Horror items availible for today's kids, even if it is all so Americanized.

[Shiner]

Great cover Lew - thanks for posting it.

[stevezodiac]

As a fan of punk the first time round I remember Siouxsie and the Banshees had a song called Trick or Treat and, as you say, back then we considered it as american as baseball and never to come to our shores. For the past three years i've bought loads of sweets in anticipation of a knock at the door but nary a soul has turned up and i've had to scoff the sweets myself (I forced them down my neck). Haven't bothered this year. Trying to lose my extremely sweet tooth.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

I just realized that I spelled/spelt the word 'Americanized' with a



'ZEE'


Such is the corrupted nature of our British identity, by Transatlantic stealth!

[Digifiend]

Yes, I have this copy, Lew----and I have a vague memory of the actual BEANO first time around, when I was five. I have 'misfiled' my own copy, or I likely would have put it on Facebook today.....

The Beano itself did that this morning anyway, crediting Lew of course for the scan.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

Ah----the old adage

Grate Minds Fink Alike


sure applies here, my good Mr Digifiend!

[TwoHeadedBoy]

We went out by ourselves, unaccompanied, in the early 1990s... A lot of kids still do today!

I used to LOVE Hallowe'en, unaware of all the USA-ness of it all. I just knew it was a special time of year focussed on monsters and ghosts and slime and sweets and all the other stuff I loved. Plus getting to dress up funny in public without getting heckled.

Had a fun time of it this year - rather than the stay-in-and-watch-horror-films theme I've had going for the last few years, I went into town and conducted a ghost walk for a friend. Spooooky!

[Phoenix]

According to the Liverpool Echo, there was a 2.6% reduction in anti-social behaviour and criminal damage on Mischief Night, the 30th of October, compared to last year when police had received 600 calls by 9pm. I don't know what the figures were for Halloween. But does anybody know why we have two days of this nonsense rather than just the one we had when I was growing up?

[TwoHeadedBoy]

Going by Wikipedia, it's been going on since 1790! It used to be on 4th November, but it gradually moved over to 30th October instead.

I know when I was younger it mostly involved the egging of houses, maybe sticking potatoes up car exhausts. My dad said people used to steal garden gates as well. Nowadays mind, it's bloody terrifying! Eight car windshields were smashed in on my road, and did you read that thing in the Echo on Friday about the road block set up? Think it was in Anfield. A load of wheelie bins left in the middle of the road, and when the cars were slowed down to move around them, they'd be attacked with bricks and planks of wood. Then there was that blind woman and her guide dog getting fireworks thrown at her as she stepped off the bus... The world's gone mad.

I'm talking like this and I'm not even thirty!

[Phoenix]

Yes, but my recollection is that it only used to be one evening, which we called Mischief Night. Now we have two successive nights. Where did the second one come from?

[NP]

It was quiet down my end of town, whatever the Liverpool Echo says. (Which is not "always" 100% accurate, in my experience!)

[Phoenix]

I live in Maghull, and usually the nearest thing to civil unrest we see is when householders get angry and have to tell the paper boy off for leaving half the paper outside the letter box when that half gets soaked in a deluge, or, as last night, when inconsiderate party goers spend half the evening setting off fireworks two days early, disturbing law-abiding citizens who are trying to read, or compose interesting messages to post on comicsuk.

[TwoHeadedBoy]

Yes, but my recollection is that it only used to be one evening, which we called Mischief Night. Now we have two successive nights. Where did the second one come from?

The second one's Hallowe'en isn't it? Just people skipping the fancy dress/Trick-or-Treat business and moving straight onto the "tricks" (as in, vandalism).

[Phoenix]

The second one's Hallowe'en isn't it? Just people skipping the fancy dress/Trick-or-Treat business and moving straight onto the "tricks" (as in, vandalism).

No, because the vandalism in Anfield that you spoke about in an earlier post took place on the 30th, which is generally considered to be Mischief Night. The children dressed up in Halloween costumes and masks etc., each with a bucket for their Trick-or-Treat swag, came round here on the 31st, as usual.