Friday, October 9, 2020 7 Brooklin Town Crier Brooklin Heritage Society From Mischief To Mayhem By Jennifer Hudgins Halloween is an annual event whose history stems back from ancient pagan rituals where festivities featured mischief-making, huge bonfires and as much destruction as possible, in order to frighten away spirits who returned from the dead. Years later, Halloween became more about community than ghosts, pranks and devastation. But apparently Brooklin teenagers in the 1960s failed to get the memo! While the younger generation was busy mapping out the fastest routes to the best candy apples and creamiest fudge, older kids made less innocent plans. For the youngsters of Brooklin, Halloween was about getting the most pennies in their UNICEF boxes and the candy. To them the "trick" part of trick or treat was an empty threat. But to older kids, "trick" was taken to a completely different level. Anarchy prevailed! Odd pranks It wasn't uncommon to have an outhouse spirited away from a farm then re-appear burning on Baldwin St. Cows would turn up in the strangest places. A car stolen from Guy Stevenson Motors was discovered nosedived into the creek. Brooklinites might find toilet paper, scarecrows from someone's garden and shoes strung from hydro lines. Hay wagons leaned against telephone poles and piles of reeking manure were scattered everywhere. One year, the Continuation School on Winchester Rd. became home to a flock of chickens and the Royal Canadian Legion, a pig. The town's Halloween hooligans took pumpkins from fields to smash onto roads and driveways. They soaped the windows of businesses and, one time, a brick was thrown through the front window of Short's Pharmacy. The phone booth at Brown's Red and White Store was torched, never to be used again. An old car filled with tires was set on fire, rolled down Baldwin, and passed the Brookside Restaurant, ending up on the bridge. Grocery stores stopped selling eggs days before to try to minimize damage, but obliging farmers didn't mind making a few extra dollars, providing the pranksters with plenty of ammunition. Danger driving Even driving through town on the night of October 31st was an adventure. Eggs, pumpkins and rotten tomatoes were flung onto passing cars from kids hiding in the shadows. In some cases, the damage came from balloons filled with paint and thrown from the roof of the old bank. Firemen were on standby all night and the OPP was out in full force. If caught, kids were given a free, mandatory ride to Myrtle for the punishment of a long walk back to Brooklin. Finally, in the early 1980s, possibly after a particularly harrowing incident involving the burning down of an unoccupied house, Brooklin's tradition of destructive Halloween "tricks" came to an end. On Sept. 26, The Brooklin Library and Community Centre parking lot was home to numerous vendors as the Farmer's Market - COVID edition came to town. Return of the Brooklin Farmer's Market