• Z3k3@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    Not sure if your conflating Halloween or talking about the way we nicked asked if we could have any 8nused wood for the bonfire

      • Z3k3@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        1 year ago

        As a kid in the UK in the 80s we never did the penny for the guy thing. No one ever gave us anything

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          Not surprised. What was a penny worth in the 80s? My dad and Grandmother were English and they told me about doing it when they were kids in the 1910s and the 1930s.

          • Z3k3@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            1 year ago

            While the phrase was penny for the guy that was not the expectation.

            Might be geographical I was out Glasgow way back then

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              It was definitely a penny when they were kids. That link said it started dying out by the mid-20th century. I thought people just went around asking for bonfire wood after that.

              • Z3k3@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                4
                ·
                1 year ago

                That’s what we did. To the point about August the adults would start hording scrap wood rather than binning it. That was until the bigger kids started lighting it early so. This resulted in us only having 1 day to build it

        • Raxiel@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          no one ever gave us anything

          Well, they won’t of you don’t ask!
          Perhaps it was regional. I was also a kid in the UK (midlands) in the 80’s and I, my brother and a few of the other lads from the estate went door to door with “penny for the guy” not everyone answered, but we got enough change to buy sweets.
          Didn’t trick or treat back then though.