In NY, the soft acts featured shaving creme-- the nozzle on the can was reshaped with a hot pip, so you could send out a stream, and hit a target 6 to 10 feet away-- Not too mean a trick-- you ended up with a "clean door" covered in soapy foam.
If you were nasty to kids, and didn't have treats something worse awaited-- Like Faldage "stink bombs" which where not unknown-- or worse-- you got oiled-- your door and threshold got coated with oil or grease-- and un wise step could send you flying-- your doorknob and jam would be greased too, so if you started to slip-- anything you grabbed for would be slippy too.
Some kids used eggs-- but if i ever got caugth with an egg, i would have missed halloween fun for years...
Chalk (big 6 inch by 1 sticks) would be put into the toe of an old sock, and beaten against the sidewalk till it was dust- and then people and property hit with it and dusted in chalk dust-- It was really vicious-- it was like being hit with a black jack-- and you got covered in a cloud of chalk dust..
halloween is not so much american as pagan irish-- it was always big in our house, and neighborhood. we always had really good costumes, one year i was a fairy pricess with yards and yards of tulle, an other year a Dale Evan's type cowgirl, with a leather vest, and flair skirt, and a six shooter!
Halloween is much more commerical now, and the costumes are all commercial.. very few kids have home made interesting costumes, they are all popular comic character of the day-- two year ago i had a steady parade of "Little Mermaid's" -- all in the same outfit-- in NY gay community has reshaped the holiday too-- so it is very different than it was 30-40 years ago..
