NFT: Oct 30th "Mischief Night"

Was often as much or even more fun than Halloween

Goosy Night. No idea why.

Halloween night we had some action in the town too. Never in my part of town because we'd hardly get any trick or treater's but the golf course areas would have a great outcome in damage.

In comment 12588264 Chris in Philly said:

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Goosy Night. No idea why.

Never jeard that before. Up in North Jersey they called it Cabbage night (I think)...

In comment 12588269 Route 9 said:

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In comment 12588264 Chris in Philly said: Quote: Goosy Night. No idea why. Never jeard that before. Up in North Jersey they called it Cabbage night (I think)...

I'm from north jersey. The towns near me called it Goosy, though i knew some people that said Cabbage Night as well.

in CT too as a kid in the 90s. I still hear the term sometimes but I don't know if kids still going around doing things like that anymore. Probably too busy with their phones.

In comment 12588264 Chris in Philly said:

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Goosy Night. No idea why.

That's an odd name to call it. It would be interesting to hear the story behind it.

Ours "Gate Night" was a little creepy when wee were very young because f was supposed to be something about the gates of hell opening that night and evil things came out to roam.

for us in MA. still around, in small pockets, nothing like when I was growing up though.

in many towns they won't sell eggs or toilet paper to kids today (10/30).

I've lived in Jersey all my life, never heard those...

It was always Mischief Night...and yes, it was crazy back in the 80s, and probably crazier the further you go back.

Back in the 70s in Edison and it included everything from soaping car windows, toilet papering yards and streets to egg throwing. One year a bunch of us kids met at a local park to see the jersey devil. There were supposed sightings the week leading up to holloween.

growing up in the late 70's/80's. Nothing too severe, some toilet papering/shaving cream and some eggs. If you were smart you put your carved jack-o-lanterns inside for the night, otherwise they were pretty much dead pumpkin walking...

and I am so glad that the kids around here are nothing like we were. In fact, I never see anyone doing anything on this night around here in Monmouth County.

Whats your address I will tp your house

In comment 12588420 Exit50 said:

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Whats your address I will tp your house

195 Mathistown Rd, Little Egg Harbor Township, NJ 08087

One thing I just realized is that eggs are $4-$5 a dozen

poop is free.

WAWA

...in Westchester (Sound shore towns at least).

I think the cops gradually lost tolerance for the shenanigans.

we called it Mischief Night. We moved to the next town over, and they called in Picket Night. I don't even know what the hell that means. These are two very small towns that actually shared the same high school. Could never figure that out. Back in the mid 70's, I used to take a ride around with my dad to see the Mischief Night devastation. Every storefront window was soaped up, garbage cans & smashed pumkins in the street, and dried up eggs on cars everywhere. I like it better now, let the kids have their cell phones.

Yeah, it's been quite a bitch since all the hubbub in the surrounding areas and being that a bunch of stoners and drunks from Mystic Island Casino, trash from Pinelands class of 2003-2005 (what's left of them at least, most have moved or died), and that same guy who runs to Osborne Island everyday for the past 20 something years keep invading my living room it can become quite a nuisance. You should come over I am watching the Saw series right now, wrapping up Saw 3.

While growing up in New Haven was tough

doesn't seem to be as big a thing anymore.

In comment 12588264 Chris in Philly said:

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Goosy Night. No idea why.

I called it goosey night too. Grew up in wayne nj. I thought it was a north jersey thing.

Doorbell night. Doesn't seem to happen too much anymore, thankfully.

Everything happened on Halloween, not the night before. I remember how we used to go to a very wealthy neighborhood, Windsor Farms, for shenanigans. That place would hire private security guards on Halloween to stop us but we'd still tear that place up with eggs, toilet paper, fireworks, you name it.

And we were evil back then. The rumor was the cops could get a bonus if they arrested some of us not sure if true or not? But we would actually call the cops on ourselves and terrorize them all night. Looking back this is a time I am not proud of and happy to hear the generation after us were not as F?cked up as we were.

One year there was some real asshole who lived in our town. He would yell and scream at us to get the hell away from his home when we were just walking down the street. He rode a Harley and always parked it on the street my town was small and many do not have driveways. We dismantled his bike piece by piece and left it on a tarp in the street. Every nut, bolt, Etc. It was completely broken down not damaged but not going anywhere anytime soon. Took us hours being so quit not to be noticed.

Another year we called the cops on ourselves we lived very! close to a golf course and were using it as a staging area to torment the cops hitting the cars with eggs and such. One kid would not call him a friend because he was certifiable insane IMO grabbed a log ran up to the cop car jumped on its hood and threw the log into the windshield shattering it.

That was a long night running they had every cop in town and a patty wagon waiting for us. Happy to say the nut case did got caught.

Then you always have the dog crap in a paper bag on fire on stoops and ring the bell.

We were horrible and typing this I am shaking my head saying WTF was wrong with us.

The first thing I did this morning was check outside to make sure nothing happened to our home. Different state now and fortunately better kids..

Not a proud moment in my life looking back.

In comment 12588524 antdog24 said:

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In comment 12588264 Chris in Philly said: Quote: Goosy Night. No idea why. I called it goosey night too. Grew up in wayne nj. I thought it was a north jersey thing.

Finally someone else! I'm from Midland Park, so maybe it's something that was just scattered through Bergen County. We shared a high school with HoHoKus and they called it Mischief Night.

A lot of toilet paper, shaving cream, eggs, smashed pumpkins, and some kids would go after crabby neighbors. I remember some kids opening up car doors and pouring water on the car seats so it would freeze.

Flour in a sock was also common.

I remember my brother hiding in the bushes with the hose and spraying kids who came near our house.

When I first bought my house in 1985, on Halloween day it looked like a fuckin omelet... Had to wash the gg from the front of my house in a cold morning, didn't give our a single candy that day, although the wife did...

Also lived in Cherry Hill, NJ in the 80's and remember when they set hundreds of fires in Camden that night.Taking the High Speed Line into Philly that night to go to a party it looked like World War 3 had hit Camden.

And it was Goosy Night.

The only thing that transpired last night was that some cars down the road were broken into. I guess that counts as mischief. I grew up in Point and all of our neighbors were in on mischief night and allowed all of the neighborhood kids to soap their car windows. That was the extent of it. Good clean fun. Pun intended.

a can of shaving cream. I would melt the spout with a pin in it, remove the pin and it would shoot out for about 10-15 feet....good times

in central/south Jersey. And now that I'm a homeowner, looking back, somebody should have kicked our asses.

I grew up in Hazlet. Never heard the term Picket Night.

In comment 12588608 CRinCA said:

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I grew up in Hazlet. Never heard the term Picket Night.

Yeah, it was the strangest thing. Mischief Night in Union Beach, and Pickit Night in Keyport. My wife is from Holmdel, and they called it Mischief Night too.

Picket or Pickit.

No idea why it was called that. Eggs were the weapon of choice. Shaving cream too.

Now as an adult I don't see much joy in it. I've had my housed egged and pumpkins smashed in the road. Never really understood the appeal frankly.

.

and it was always called Goosy Night.
Origins of night before Halloween - ( New Window )

Hillsdale. We called it Cabbage Night. Why? I have no idea. Did we throw cabbage (a question my wife asks all the time)? No, we did not. But ask ayone from Hillsdale, Woodcliff Lake, Park Ridge....it is cabbage night.

.
Mischief Night - ( New Window )

Apparently someone in my small town must have been from Vermont.
Picket Night - ( New Window )

In my city we had three nights of fun.
Soap night was October 28
Soaped and shaving creme everything
Egg night was October 29
Eggs Toilet paper doorbell ringing mailbox glueing
Mischief night October 30
Bust up pumpkins throw trash cut down clothes lines
Potatoes in tailpipes throwing dog shit bombs and low grade destruction
We would collect cedar tree pods which were the size of golf and tennis balls and throw them at those old Aluminum storm doors everyone used to have. Thump what a great sound that was hearing those doors dent.
God we were such assholes
Today you end up jailed for that stuff. Glad it's over. That was the 70s

It was goosy night. At least growing up in the '70s.

In comment 12588367 Bill in Del said:

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Back in the 70s in Edison and it included everything from soaping car windows, toilet papering yards and streets to egg throwing. One year a bunch of us kids met at a local park to see the jersey devil. There were supposed sightings the week leading up to holloween.

Bill - where in Edison did you grow up?

In the 70s and 80s it was Mischief Night and it was a big thing. My experience pretty much tracks with everyone else. although I remember one year at this one house they left their garden hose attached to an outdoor spigot. We quietly opened the storm door, slid in the hose, turned in on and rang the doorbell and ran. Someone got a very wet experience

As one of 6 sons most of the dopes knew to leave our house alone. Anyway look out the window and some idiot is soaping my dads windshield. Couldn't have that so took off after him. Took about a half mile but I caught him and back he went. Did a nice job of washing the windshield clean.

in Jersey City was awesome.

Chris in Philly, my aunt lives in Midland Park and that's where I heard the cabbage night thing from.

We called it mischief night.

We feared going out but we got such a rush from it. Newark, NJ nigga...some of you pussies talk about real stories? Mine was in the fucking hood where you could dare to be shot. Not for the faint of heart! thats for sure!

I don't think I have seen anything since I've moved to PA.

Feel bad about the dumb stuff I did back then. Egging and the worst was putting a little bit of Vaseline on the windshield of the drivers side so he sees it in the morning, turns on his wiper to get it iff and ends up smearing it all over the windshield. That was our favorite. I hate that I did it. We would also rip out pages of porn mags and put it under the windshield wipers of cars. I like to think it made some people laugh. I wish we did that more than the vaseline and the egging.

and we called it Mischief Night. I went out on a grand total of 1 of these nights as a kid. In our neighborhood, we had a 2 groups of kids. One group was the group that I was in; that was 10-11 years old at the time. The other group, which consisted of kids about 3 years older than us. Well, all of us went to the park in our neighborhood one mischief night in the mid 90's. I remember being so excited to go out. I walk to the park that is directly across the street from my house. I got hit by one of the older kids in the shoulder with a huge tube sock full of flour and eggs. I got hit that once, turned around, and walked directly back across the street into my house and never went out on a Mischief Night again, lol. That shit hurt and that was more than enough for me. Couldn't do much about it either considering the kid who hit me was one of the older kids in our neighborhood.

As it turned out, all of the older kids absolutely pelted the shit out of us younger kids in my neighborhood, which I'm ashamed to admit but none of us younger guys saw that coming, lol. So, my one and only Mischief Night lasted literally about 10 seconds.