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This used to be a thing before Halloween. Haven't heard of it the past few years. Do kids even know what cabbage is these days?
I'm going to guess that you are older and from the Northeast United States. In other parts of the country, what you're referring to is generally known as Mischief Night, but it doesn't involve cabbage.
I'm going to guess that you are older and from the Northeast United States. In other parts of the country, what you're referring to is generally known as Mischief Night, but it doesn't involve cabbage.
Correct. The cabbage was stolen from gardens (household gardens were common) and smashed, as were pumpkins. Fires were sometimes set as well; stuff in the middle of the road, etc.. The previous generation had to deal with outhouses tipped over or worse. To the best of my recollection, none of it ever became a police matter or had any retribution other than a caught kid getting a whuppin from his father if he went too far.
Correct. The cabbage was stolen from gardens (household gardens were common) and smashed, as were pumpkins. Fires were sometimes set as well; stuff in the middle of the road, etc.. The previous generation had to deal with outhouses tipped over or worse. To the best of my recollection, none of it ever became a police matter or had any retribution other than a caught kid getting a whuppin from his father if he went too far.
I thought so. Mischief night in my neighborhood this year involved some illegal fireworks. That was a new one. No garden raiders. Although we eat it, I don't typically grow cabbage, and we harvested and cleaned up our raised beds a couple of weeks ago. Good thing, too, because in the absence of cabbage, the mischief makers might have chosen tomatoes instead, and I wouldn't have relished cleaning that mess up!
Where I grew up (Northern NJ) it was referred to as "Goosey night" or "Mischief Night" back in the 70s. It was still a thing at least into the 90s, as I was an EMT back then and the police always had a lot of extra patrols on duty that night. I still saw some signs of it into the early 2000s (TP-ing and such) but then I moved to PA and after that did not see it again, either there or where we live now in AZ. I think its still 'a thing' but not so much as it was in the past.
We called it Goosey Night but the adjacent town called it Cabbage Night.
Was harmless stuff first, ringing doorbells and running, soaping car windows, hanging toilet paper. Then egg-throwing got to be a thing.
Supermarkets wouldn't sell eggs to teenagers that day.
Oh yeah, and mean kids would smash pumpkins if people left them out. i remember being heartbroken one Halloween when I woke to find my jack o'lantern smashed in the street.
I always assumed the band Smashing Pumpkins took its name from Goosey/Cabbage/Mischief Night activities.
Last edited by Mightyqueen801; 11-04-2021 at 03:27 PM..
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