[Sca-cooks] OT/OOP "Begging for Thanksgiving"

[S CLEMENGER]

My parents were born in the mid-30s (Dad would have been 73 this upcoming 
Wed), and they never mentioned anything like the begging at Thanksgiving. 
They were both born (and largely raised) in Connecticut, so perhaps it's a 
regional thing?
--Maire, who doesn't get trick-or-treaters, alas....


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" <adamantius1 at verizon.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Sent: Saturday, October 31, 2009 2:49 PM
Subject: [Sca-cooks] OT/OOP "Begging for Thanksgiving"


> I'm wondering if I'm the only one here who remembers, either
> personally or via anecdotes from older friends and relatives, the
> concept of dressing as "tramps" and going "begging for Thanksgiving".
> Both my parents spoke of this; Halloween was for pranks (things like
> stockings full of chalk or baby powder or flour, with which to
> harmlessly whack the unwary traveller), but Thanksgiving was for
> dressing up and going door to door.
>
> I wonder if perhaps the practice died out in the Great Depression,
> when many American households in some parts of the country experienced
> far too much of this sort of thing from people who were doing it in
> earnest to survive...
>
> Adamantius, skimming fish fumet
>
>