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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think my MIL is wrong?

302 replies

Bluemonkey18 · 04/11/2022 22:10

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.

OP posts:
Birthcontroltomajortom · 05/11/2022 02:03

Woo oo. That was definitely in the 70s. 🎃

newtb · 05/11/2022 02:55

66 and turnips, my mother was from Coppull in Lancashire.

Anoooshka · 05/11/2022 03:03

AdoraBell · 04/11/2022 22:59

I’m 54, grew up in London. Hallowe’en wasn’t a thing. Moved back to UK in 2015 after living overseas, that was the first time I saw pumpkins carved.

I'm the same age as you and grew up in London. We had Halloween parties in the 70s. Dressed up, carved something (maybe a turnip?), told spooky stories, and did bobbing apples.

Volterra · 05/11/2022 03:37

Grew up in Bristol in the 70’s and had a swede. Towards the end of the 70s we did do trick or treat with bin bag costumes and only in the street. Try carving a swede or turnip OP, you won’t forget it, I was very happy when we had pumpkins with my DC as so much easier.

MuthaHubbard · 05/11/2022 03:54

HamIsMyCake · 04/11/2022 22:20

I’m 48, live in Northern England and it was always turnips.

Same. Black bag and some fake vampire teeth if you were lucky

Kam610 · 05/11/2022 03:59

I'm 31 and we didn't get pumpkins when I was younger, we always used a turnip or swede. I'm in Scotland. I think pumpkins were a thing, but not as popular as they are now.

NewPapaGuinea · 05/11/2022 04:13

You could have literally googled “halloween turnips” and turned this into a positive post about what you learned from your MIL

notmyrealmoniker · 05/11/2022 04:18

In the 90s my DB and I went trick or treating. I remember mum wrapped white toilet paper round us and we went as Egyptian mummies one year. Can't remember any pumpkin or turnip carving

ThatPirateLady · 05/11/2022 04:19

Another northerner who had a tea light candle lit swede (called a turnip back then) and every costume was a bin bag plus accessories.

not really sure how we survived the 80s.

Sunnidaze · 05/11/2022 04:23

Grew up in the 70s and 80s, only Guy Fawkes night for me, no trick or treating and definitely no pumpkin carving. Trick or treating only started seriously around here about 10 years ago.

Clarabellasingsthisbit · 05/11/2022 04:46

I'm 66 and grew up in the North West.We carved Swedes,did Bob-Apple and ate toffee apples.That was about it really.we made more of a thing of Bonfire night a few days later.

eurochick · 05/11/2022 05:07

I was born in the 70s in the South East. No one carved anything or decorated their houses around me. A friend who grew up in Liverpool used to carve turnips but I never saw that down south. I carved my first pumpkin in my mid20s.

Trick or treating did happen but it was fairly rare. I was never allowed to go as my parents considered it begging. There were not hoards of costumed children out like there is now.

theremustonlybeone · 05/11/2022 05:16

So you think your mil is making it all up? How odd that someone tells what it was like in the past and you suggest they are wrong.

a bit odd as a quick look on the intranet to see that turnips were used. I am Scottish and we carved them. Bloody hard to do but your MIL is correct and your wrong

Rightsraptor · 05/11/2022 05:19

I'm late 60's and we never did any Halloween stuff, never heard of trick or treat till I was adult, never saw a pumpkin either. They definitely were not in the shops where I lived.

Halloween was traditionally marked by the Scots and Irish (I'm told) and they took it over to the USA, from where it's bounced back to England.

countrygirl99 · 05/11/2022 05:23

OP we we well hard in the 70s. None of this cushy soft pumpkin carving. You got blisters carving your swede and apple bobbing in freezing water was the fun bit.

SophieJo · 05/11/2022 05:25

She is right!

Borgonzola · 05/11/2022 05:31

I think some people on here have misread the 'if she was born in 1963...' post. I took that to mean that she may not remember the 1960s all that much because she was too little - she'd only have been 6 at the end of the decade. Just like I was born late 80s but that doesn't mean I could tell you anything about the 80s or the early 90s.

It seems people have taken it to mean that she's ancient so can't remember anything at all, but I don't think that's what the PP meant!

Kalettesarethebest · 05/11/2022 05:34

I'm a child of the 70's and have a photo of me with a beautifully carved swede when I was about 7. My dad was from Yorkshire and it was definitely a thing there. There wasn't much trick or treating going on, maybe making outfits out of black bin bags, all very low key.

Emotionalsupportviper · 05/11/2022 05:58

Theluggagerules · 04/11/2022 22:15

In Scotland they carved turnips

Same in north east - always a turnip (swede to you southerners).

They were a bugger to hollow out and carve, too.

We didm't dress up or trick or treat, but we did "penny for the guy" standing on street corners (haven't seen a guy for a long time)

Still remember the smell of burning turnip and my sister setting her hair on fire! I slapped her head to put it out and got a hiding for "hitting" her. When my mam realised what had happened she didn't say sorry - just said "It'll do for the next time". This was a lie because I got a hiding the next time, too.

But I'm not bitter.

Hangingoninthere88 · 05/11/2022 05:58

How odd that you want to be right against your MIL so badly that you choose to publicise a really quite mundane and harmless conversation in which she's just reminiscing about her childhood. If you were really that fussed then as pp have said you could just have googled it. I love hearing the older generation's accounts of their childhoods and find it fascinating. It would on the whole never even occur to me that they were lying I would just enjoy the story. If I thought what they were saying wasn't historically accurate then as above I'd just google it. That's one of the great advantages of modern technology..

User6363283727374 · 05/11/2022 06:00

Your mil isn't wrong, carved turnips were definitely a thing!

I was a kid in the 90s and honestly Halloween wasn't really huge then imo (of my mum never made much of it) - can't remember seeing a pumpkin in the 90's!

FaazoHuyzeoSix · 05/11/2022 06:07

I"m late 40s. We would have swede lanterns but they were very difficult to carve so very rudimentary faces. Trick or treat was vaguely a thing, you might get 2 knocks on the door over the evening but there wasn't any obligation to give them anything. The cultural takeover from America just hadn't happened yet. Can't remember when it did, must have been quite gradually over the course of the 1990s

Mrsherdwick · 05/11/2022 06:16

I was born in 1961 in the north west. Definitely used a turnip with a candle in it.
Your mil is right.

RuthW · 05/11/2022 06:35

She is correct, trick or treat os a newish thing. Certainly not around when I was a child in 70/80s, nor pumpkin carving.

Plumbear2 · 05/11/2022 06:49

You are wrong. As a child in the 70s and 80s pumpkins are unheard of in the UK. We caved turnips/Swedes and trick or treating wasn't a thing. We only saw pumpkins and trick or treating on American films such as ET.