The Strangest....

Debi

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What were the strangest things you ever got while trick or treating? Strange doesn't have to equate to bad, necessarily, by the way.

(Thanks to Duke for the question!)
 
We used to get some of the more standard non-candy "treats" back in the day, including apples, pennies, religious tracts, peanuts (in shell) etc, but some of the others were more unusual. For example, in a neighborhood near us was a family who ran carnival/fair food trailers. They would set up cotton candy and candy apple machines in their garage. You could always tell who'd been there before by whether or not they had a wet wash cloth with them.

In another town we lived in when I was younger, a family (who owned the local movie theater) would give you coupons for one free bag of popcorn. Of course you had to pay to go to the movie, but it was a pretty smart marketing ploy.

The most unusual was an older couple from one of the more conservative/evangelical sects who would lecture child (and especially parents who were with their children) on the demonic, evil nature of Halloween. No candy, just a sermon and condemnation. Not surprisingly, they would often wake up the next morning to find this windows soaped, their house egged, and/or their tress toilet papered. Yet, they'd do the same thing year after year.
 
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We got pennies, and many of the other things you mentioned. We also got homemade items, like popcorn balls, and the family would label them with their name and address so moms would know who it was from. Didn't matter because we normally threw those out anyway! I always felt bad about that because I knew they put effort in on those, but gads they were awful!

Anyone remember the days of handing out the McDonald's coupons?
 
We got pennies, and many of the other things you mentioned. We also got homemade items, like popcorn balls, and the family would label them with their name and address so moms would know who it was from. Didn't matter because we normally threw those out anyway! I always felt bad about that because I knew they put effort in on those, but gads they were awful!

Anyone remember the days of handing out the McDonald's coupons?
Yeah, I forgot about popcorn balls. Never cared for them either. Don't remember ever getting McDonald's coupons.
 
Yeah, I forgot about popcorn balls. Never cared for them either. Don't remember ever getting McDonald's coupons.
My kids got them. They were never enough to actually BUY something from the menu, therefore brilliant marketing, as you mentioned.
 
;voPopcorn balls. We used to play ball with them lol. Yuck. Always stale.

I honestly can’t think of anything strange. Money and coupons were the oddest.