To think my MIL is wrong?

[Bluemonkey18]

I was talking with gf mother (61) about carving pumpkins and she said that they didn't have pumpkins back in the 60s and instead carved turnips. She said they would put a candle inside and run around, rattling bins and scaring people. And that trick or treating wasn't a thing.

I don't remember seeing pumpkins in shops before 00s but trick or treating I've always known about but never been (30s,London).

Oh yeah and we definitely carved turnips for Halloween and put them in your window. I bent many a teaspoon trying to scrape the innards out, they would literally take hours

Remember Trick Or Treating once when I was young so that would have been the 70's (probably picked it up from Scooby Doo or similar).

Halloween was definitely a thing, parties, dressing up, Apple Bobbing etc.
I remember Blue Peter suggesting food for your Halloween party, the one that sticks in my mind to this day is red jelly poured into a rubber glove mold to make a creepy red jelly-hand.

Really? I'm only a couple of year's younger (38) and pumpkins and trick or treating were well established when I was growing up. Though costumes were usually home made bin bag vampire capes, old sheet ghosts and witches hats. I do remember Bonfire Night being the bigger celebration though! With roasting marshmallows toffee apples, guy displays in shopping centres (usually for charity) and locally organised fireworks displays (fireservice, scouts, or rugby club usually).

Yes! Blue Peter and Going Live would have cool recipes for Halloween party food. We made masrhmallow eyeballs for a Halloween party when I was around 6 or 7 (very early 90s). Loved apple bobbing, which I haven't seen so much.

Haloween wasn't really a thing when i was young (in the late 70s/early 80s). Didn't carve pumpkins or go trick or treating. Didn't carve turnips either though...

Trick or treating not, but halloween parties dressed up as ghosts, witches and the rest (with apple bobbing and other games, spooky stories and so on). And we definitely carved turnips. My dad used to hollow them out for us so it didn't take all night, then we used them as lanterns while we ate spooky snacks and told spooky stories. Not in Scotland.

There's an Agatha Christie with a children's Halloween party in it. It's one of the later Poirot mysteries published in 1969. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallowe'en_Party

Yes turnips were carved up in Northumberland as a child in the 80s. Turnip lanterns.

We definitely had Halloween/Guising. Apple dookin and toffee apples. Happy days.

I’m 51, in the 70s we did apple bobbing and sometimes an uncle would throw a party and we’d dress up(homemade as in short ivee your head or DM would make a witch’s hat out of black sugar paper and use her makeup as face paint.) We never had pumpkins or trick or treat until the mid to late 80s.

*sheet over your head

Why would your MIL be wrong?

Lancashire in the 70s and people went guising, door to door singing for money or sweets. I was never allowed to as my mum considered it begging🙄Although I was allowed to go to one Halloween party, we bobbed for apples, one of my favourite childhood memories.
The tricks happened on a different night, mischief night (can't remember when that was), but people would tie their gates shut to stop them being taken off!

i also remember in the late 60s (probably 67 or 68) we lived in Married quarters in Germany and there was a field of root veg opposite, and after the harvest there was a big one lying in the road so my mum put it on the bottom of the pram and we took it home and carved it.

In the 70’s we had a hallowe’en party, apple bobbing and played “murder in the dark”

Blimey!

That's harsh! Savage, that is . . . .

😂😂😂

Goodness I haven’t heard the start of the song, “We are witches of Halloween” for about 45 yrs!
Halloween wasn’t really a scary night in the 1970’s. It was much simpler, you’d walk around with your lantern on string trying to keep it balanced, with everyday candles that always seemed to go out. My mum would make toffee and we would bob for apples.

Like other posters I would point out that she actually lived her own life and at 61 you'd be unwise to think she is in her dotage and unable to remember what she did. I'm 63, and we carved turnips in Wales. We dressed as witches and meandered aimlessly around. Any parties involved apple bobbing, and were usually around Guy Fawkes night. I remember being shocked learning about trick or treating from American tv programmes. However, OP, if you are going to be so patronising about your MIL, I don't really predict a long and happy relationship with her in my crystal ball.....

I'm 53, northeast, definately turnips, never saw a pumpkin. You knocked on the door and said "the sky is blue, the grass is green, can I have a penny for Halloween". No decorations, no parties or dressing up. I wasn't allowed to go begging. Halloween wasn't a big thing at all, trick or treat hadn't been heard of. We did once have a party at school - they hung apples on strings from the PE apparatus, and everyone had to try to take bites. 🤢

Why assume that she was wrong or lying? You weren't alive at the time. She was! I find it strange that you would disbelieve something like that.

Born in the 60s.

DM (from NI) carved a turnip, put candle in it - took ages! There were a few pumpkins in the local greengrocers, and I did beg my DM if we could have a pumpkin lantern but pumpkins were far more expensive than turnips to buy. Trick or treating was not a thing.

Apple bobbing and toffee apples were a thing. As soon as toffee apples appeared in the greengrocers (costing 6d) you knew Halloween/Bonfire Night was coming. You certainly didn’t see big grab bags of sweets at the sweet shop - you could get chews for a penny, lollipops or quarter (4 oz) bags of sweets.

@My3dahliasarebloominlovely

Did they have crystal balls back in your day? 😉

I was a child in Berkshire in the 60s and we carved swedes to make lanterns. I don't think I'd ever seen a pumpkin - they were American as far as I knew. I didn't know anyone who went trick or treating but I believe it was more common in the north and Scotland.

Nobody dressed up either.

I went trick or treating twice in the mid 80s when I was quite young. Halloween wasn’t a big thing at all. No pumpkins and the costumes were very innocent - things you’d cobble together from your parents wardrobe, maybe with a plastic witches hat bought from a shop. There weren’t any proper costumes like there are now. People didn’t buy in sweets for trick or treaters usually, you might just be given a biscuit from their tin or sweets if they happened to have some. I preferred it as it was then.

Why do you need mil to be wrong about this @Bluemonkey18 ?