Whether you remember Halloween as being a time to dress up in festive troll earrings and dye your hair blue, or you used the day as an opportunity to act out and completely wreak havoc on the neighbourhood (anyone up for a good ol' fashioned shaving cream fight?), Oct. 31 holds a special place in the hearts of '90s kids everywhere. Sure, most everyone at your school was dressing up in black vinyl, inspired by The Crow, but you were probably out causing mischief (or you know someone who was). Regardless of where you grew up (and what kind of parents you had), chances are that a few of the following happenings will forever live on your Halloween rap sheet. It was all innocent fun, of course.
Halloween in the 90s
13 Bizarre Things We Did on Halloween in the '90s, and Where Were Our Parents?
1. You rolled deep.
The '90s were not a time of casually grabbing a pal and heading outside for some low-key trick-or-treating. You went with an enormous pack. In fact, at no point during the night were there fewer than 30 people in your group, stretched out across one neighbourhood block.
Image Source: Unsplash / Nicholas Green
2. Earlier that day your mom made you participate in the school bake sale.
If you were in elementary school, you used orange frosting and a pumpkin-shaped Bundt pan to create your delicious masterpiece. The rules stated that the entire cake had to be edible. If you were in high school, your mom probably made your dessert for you, and you rolled your eyes at her as she handed you the Tupperware that morning.
Image Source: Unsplash / sumaia alzadjali
3. Someone you know definitely got their house egged.
This intel didn't really surface until the morning because the '90s were a time of landlines, but come daylight, you heard about who got their house egged, and whose mom was pissed. Parents had this unspoken understanding surrounding egging: egging things like the cypress tree in the front lawn was fine, but once their car was egged, all bets were off.
Image Source: Flickr user Stewart Butterfield
4. ... and their house TPed.
Getting your house TPed was almost worse than getting it egged because it took forever to pull each piece of single-ply off the trees.
Image Source: Flickr user John Beagle
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5. By the end of the night you were covered in shaving cream.
It wasn't exactly legal to have a shaving cream fight (probably because it always ended up in your eyes), but that never stopped you from stocking up on Barbasol the night of. The cashiers always gave you the side-eye because they knew what you were up to. And if you had a carton of eggs in your shopping cart, they might have even refused to sell you your contraband.
If you succeeded in the purchase and took the fight seriously, you used a cigarette lighter to burn the spout into a point so that you could spray from a good distance and not have to stand up close to someone. Seriously, where were our parents?
Image Source: Flickr user Klobetime
6. You believed there was a high probability of finding razor blades in your candy.
Where did our parents even learn about this danger? Was it a complete myth? Nonetheless, they always reminded you to be careful when accepting candy from suspicious people because the news said children were finding razor blades in their M&Ms.
Image Source: Unsplash / Carl Raw
7. You intentionally scared the living crap out of yourself.
Whether it was going to your BFF's house to play Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board or locking yourself in the bathroom and staring at the mirror while you chanted "Bloody Mary" five times, you definitely dedicated some portion of the night to scaring the absolute sh*t out of yourself.
Image Source: Unsplash / Annie Gray
8. Someone gave you weird candy.
You'd still always end up with one box of crappy candy. Or even worse, raisins.
Image Source: Flickr user Windell Oskay
9. Halloween officially ended for you the day you saw someone wear the Scream mask.
Destroying someone's home with toilet paper and burning your eyes with shaving cream was all fun and games until Scream came out, and you spotted your first mask on Halloween night. You haven't been back out again since.
Image Source: Flickr user Sam Howzit