A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE…
31 10 2007I have a sort of a scary but true story for Halloween, a little vid and question.
Question first…
Until fairly recently the ‘trick or treat’ thing didn’t happen here in the same way. People would go door to door but you had to say a little poem or something if you wanted anything.
However, unfortunately, due to the ever-blurring monoculture I can’t remember the form. The person whose house it was would say something when they opened the door but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was.
Anyone got any ideas?
Now the story. A different kind of scary story but scary nonetheless.
This story is about the old saying ‘a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing’.
When I was at school we were supposed to wear a uniform. As uniforms went it wasnt so bad. It was black, white and gold - the school next door had an all brown one and they used to take a fair amount of verbal abuse for it.
Anyway, I used to refuse to wear the uniform and so was always in trouble. However, because I usually did well in my classes I was never treated the way that some of the kids who were in different sorts of trouble were.
There was a long-sleeved t-shirt I used to wear quite often that was the cover of the newspaper on the day that MLK was shot.
One of the boys in this catholic school came up to me semi-outraged and said “what are you wearing that for - he is the one that invented protestants.”
That was about 17 years ago and I still don’t think I know how to respond to that!
Now the video - which is a sketch that hints at what I asked in the question but doesn’t answer it.
what is most weird is that on any other day of the year you would probably get shot knocking on doors and making demands. halloween sort of becomes an amnesty day for home invasions.
The house always seemed vacant, except at night you could see a dim light from one of the upstairs windows.
The house was located in a vacant part of the city. It was by accident we were in the neighborhood on Halloween.
We rang the doorbell. That was brave even though there was three of us seventh grade guys. The most beautiful woman I have ever seen answered. She was dressed all in black including her short skirt.
“…he is the one that invented Protestants.” Just how do you respond to something so completely off base as that…
Have no fears, rest your doubts, we in the States are rapidly becoming the vanguard for such levels of total ignorance.
Rev - strange isnt it?
RE - when was this?
CG - like i said , i still harly know what to say
Well, having grown up in the States, I remember a bit of the protocol. There really wasn’t anything to be said at the door, but the best residents would try to scare the hell out of you. The kids job was to not flinch and “BOOO” right back. The whole idea is that you have to placate the kids with candy or they will egg your house or TP your trees.
Of course, being in America, we were not allowed to eat any candy that wasn’t sealed, and everything had to be inspected by the parents before we could eat it. Stories of razorblades inside candy apples and poisoned jelly beans were common place (talk about trick or treat).
Of course years later I took up the egg battles that grew to legendary proportions. Eggs sprayed black so you couldn’t see them and night vision goggles. Huge battalions warring over the highest hill in the cemetery. War is fun when no one gets killed. And it beats the hell out of trick or treat.
This ends our public service announcement.