devils night

[emchy]

i got reminded today of Devils Night...
How when i was growing up that sanctioned night of destruction before Halloween was as big as Halloween itself. Of my dad and brother standing in the driveway with bb and pellet guns to scare away potential vandals
(teachers houses are extra 'at-risk')

How weird it was to leave Michigan and realize our Devil's Night was mostly a regional thing
until the Crow came out... and even then some folks thought it was just an invention of the film.

Nope - I was around when the fires on Devils Night in Detroit went crazy. The wild scary thrilling horrible of one night where it felt lawless and anything could happen.

Comments

[nerak-g.livejournal.com]

We had that, too. I always feared for our pumpkins, and I still put them away before it gets too late, even now.
I remember being much more scared of it than of Halloween, like it was something the older kids did and it made all the younger ones afraid.Until we got to be old enough to smash pumpkins ourselves.I can't say I did much of that~~mostly just spraypainted stuff and turned over trash cans.
We didn't call it Devil's Night, though....funny, I can't remember what we called it.

[rebwhy.livejournal.com]

regional, but not divided by the 49 parallel
growing up in ontario we had devil's night too
not quite to the extent of detroit's as i lived in the 'burbs
but definitely a night of much vandalism
now that i'm on the best coast, i'd totally forgotten about that little tradition

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

Devil's Night was not a strong tradition in East Lansing. Most of my friends knew about it but couldn't remember what day it was supposed to be -- the day before Halloween? The Friday before Halloween? So instead, there was this sort of general upswing in vandalism and pranks the week or so before Halloween.

[whittles.livejournal.com]

i definitely had that while in NY, but I didn't see it as much in Boston. Might be that I lived in a fancier neighborhood in boston. I kinda don't really miss it.

[acydrayn.livejournal.com]

Our Devil's Night in Utah meant dressing up in dark outfits (ninja's) and sneakily putting plates of warm cookies on people's doorsteps, ringing the doorbell and running away laughing at the trouble we've caused some poor soul...

Yeah ok, it wasn't hardcore. I was definitely one of the ones who heard of it first in the Crow and thought it wasn't really celebrated like that anywhere.