Not that I wish to encourage any more little sods to knock on my door, but does anyone else think it's a great shame that 'Penny for the Guy' has completely died out whereas we have all and sundry celebrating Hallowe'en. I know the Americans go for it big style and therefore the UK naturally follows what America does, but in my youth Hallowe'en didn't exist but we had enormous fun creating a guy to put in either a wheelbarrow or a go cart.
To be honest, if someone were to do that tomorrow night I'd be highly and pleasantly surprised instead of wondering whether someone's little darling was going to key my car if I don't provide them with the result of Hallowe'en begging.

As an aside - did anyone else build a go cart from disused pram wheels, planks of wood and steered with pieces of string. I 'parked' mine outside the local post office one day in 1961 only to find when I emerged that some utter sod had reversed their car over it :'(

Quote from: newportnobby on November 04, 2013, 10:42:47 PM
Not that I wish to encourage any more little sods to knock on my door, but does anyone else think it's a great shame that 'Penny for the Guy' has completely died out whereas we have all and sundry celebrating Hallowe'en.

Not sure I miss it - anyway it was more like 50p for the guy

At the end of the day its essentially a celebratory catholic burning and perhaps out of place. Even if Guy Fawkes was as they say the last man to enter Westminster with an honest intent

Quote
In my youth Hallowe'en didn't exist

Oh it did - it's just that back then the pagans had to keep quiet or they got abused or worse 

Trick or treat I could do without. It's called "threatening behaviour" in my book. A US friend of mine feeds kids who do that caffienated sugar sweets. He figures it'll make the parents suffer 

Quote from: newportnobby on November 04, 2013, 10:42:47 PM
As an aside - did anyone else build a go cart from disused pram wheels, planks of wood and steered with pieces of string.

Certainly did, there was three of us who used to go about together and we built a three seater kart.  There was always arguments on who was allowed to be the driver but we had so much fun on that kart 

Yep my brother and I built one in the 1950's great fun going down the local 1 in 10 hill brakes!!!!!!
   

Quote from: newportnobby on November 04, 2013, 10:42:47 PM
As an aside - did anyone else build a go cart from disused pram wheels, planks of wood and steered with pieces of string. I 'parked' mine outside the local post office one day in 1961 only to find when I emerged that some utter sod had reversed their car over it :'(

Built one with friends on the street in the early 50's and used it up and down the rise we lived on. Not many cars then so we used the road.

Ray

Quote from: EtchedPixels on November 04, 2013, 10:46:22 PM

Quote from: newportnobby on November 04, 2013, 10:42:47 PM
Not that I wish to encourage any more little sods to knock on my door, but does anyone else think it's a great shame that 'Penny for the Guy' has completely died out whereas we have all and sundry celebrating Hallowe'en.

Trick or treat I could do without. It's called "threatening behaviour" in my book. A US friend of mine feeds kids who do that caffienated sugar sweets. He figures it'll make the parents suffer 

I put my own variation of trick or treat this year out for the kids
Squares of chocolate all with any manufacturing logos removed with a warmed knife beforehand. Some were Dairy Milk, Caramac, Milky Bar, and Dark chocolate but some were Ex-lax

Quote from: newportnobby on November 04, 2013, 10:42:47 PM
Not that I wish to encourage any more little sods to knock on my door, but does anyone else think it's a great shame that 'Penny for the Guy' has completely died out whereas we have all and sundry celebrating Hallowe'en. I know the Americans go for it big style and therefore the UK naturally follows what America does,

Dear me I dont quite know where to start!
I thort at first the "report to mod" button !
but Oh! guess what !!! hello Npn !

EP has already correctly identified the rampant anti-catholic sentiment of "penny for the guy"

I wonder what this had to do with Ngauge in the first place ?
and then you have a go at Americans !

Gosh.

We built a cart in about 1956 with ball bearing steering pivot and proper rope steering - string would never have got it round the 90 deg bend at the bottom of the slope down from the Co-op. Wheels were from a pushchair and current Elf and Stupidity would have has field day about the open spokes. Got about three years fun out of that.

By contrast Penny for the Guy was only practiced by the poor kids from the prefabs. Halloween started for us at boarding school where it was all about witches and ghosts rather than the current fad for slasher killers and vampires. I blame Jamie Lee Curtiss for that but have forgiven her since seeing her body in A Fish Called Wanda.

Ok then, to bring it into N gauge territory - has anyone done a layout, set in Autumn, with bonfires (large) and scarily dressed kids. This would cover the period in question (U.S. layouts could omit the large bonfires, naturally).

My U.S rellies treat Halloween differently to us, as the idea is to give the kids either a treat or a trick (such as chucking a bucket of water over them, or scaring them with your own costume). In the UK it seems to be reversed, so the householder is threatened with a trick, if the kids do not get a treat (usually pelted with eggs). As usual, our kids find a way to screw up a good tradition - but that is Anglo Saxons for you!

Quote from: ParkeNd on November 05, 2013, 12:01:38 AMBy contrast Penny for the Guy was only practiced by the poor kids from the prefabs.

Oi ! where are all these vignettes coming from ?
I am quite familiar, from my youth,  with the Guy in the Wheelbarrow wot was laterer burned on the bonfire.
We had no prefabs anywhere within miles of us (nouveau riche 1930s estate !)

I say again, what has this got to do with a Ngauge forum? tchtch
It's not what I was here for !

Quote from: Kipper on November 05, 2013, 12:06:30 AM
Ok then, to bring it into N gauge territory - has anyone done a layout, set in Autumn, with bonfires (large) and scarily dressed kids. This would cover the period in question (U.S. layouts could omit the large bonfires, naturally).,,,,
kids find a way to screw up a good tradition - but that is Anglo Saxons for you!

Nice one !

QuoteI say again, what has this got to do with a Ngauge forum? tchtch
It's not what I was here for !

Topic is under the Board Heading: General Discussion - Talk about anything here! Other gauges, hobbies, the weather...

so doesn't need to be about N or even Railways.

Quote from: trainsdownunder on November 05, 2013, 03:34:36 AM

QuoteI say again, what has this got to do with a Ngauge forum? tchtch
It's not what I was here for !

Topic is under the Board Heading: General Discussion - Talk about anything here! Other gauges, hobbies, the weather...

so doesn't need to be about N or even Railways.

Got it in one

Quote from: newportnobby on November 04, 2013, 10:42:47 PM
Not that I wish to encourage any more little sods to knock on my door, but does anyone else think it's a great shame that 'Penny for the Guy' has completely died out whereas we have all and sundry celebrating Hallowe'en.

No. Whilst I abhor the fact that this country appears to follow and imitate the USA like an irritating younger brother I think we can do without PFTG. Both that and Trick or Treat are nothing more than thinly disguised begging and should be stopped. Personally I always put a notice on my door warning that police will be called if anyone causes a nuisance

QuoteAs an aside - did anyone else build a go cart from disused pram wheels, planks of wood and steered with pieces of string. I 'parked' mine outside the local post office one day in 1961 only to find when I emerged that some utter sod had reversed their car over it :'(

Oh yes

Back wheels were off our old Silver Cross pram, front ones off an old tartan shopping trolley. There were three or four round our way so we used to have regular races


Paul

With apologies to RChook, but this is the General Discussion board as pointed out by Sprintex.
From what I can recall, Hallowe'en was a pagan ritual initially whereas Guy Fawkes Night has a sound grounding in British history, so I see no reason why it should not be 'celebrated'.
I used to sell flexible packaging to major confectionery companies both in the UK and the USA and, given the population difference between the two, it was patently obvious which country paid the most interest to Hallowe'en although I could monitor from sales how the UK was tracking the USA.
I am not having a go at Americans, more having a go at the Brits who slavishly follow US trends. Let's face it, a great proportion of UK kids don't speak English any more - they speak American, spell American and act American. This is almost certainly down to (a) the amount of American TV they watch and (b) I.T. factors

To support Mick in his right to use this board for it's intended purpose.

They were called soapbox carts where I came from and this raises the topic of design and it's effect on ultimate performance. The classic design had an upturned box at the rear of the plank which you sat on while your biddable mate pushed. But by just having the plank you could kneel on the back on one knee whilst scooting with the other foot - the steering rope was trapped against the sides of the plank by your hands and then when terminal velocity was achieved you could lay flat on the plank as you sped down the slope and steer with your hands on both sides of the axle. You could also cover sizeable distances solo as per skate boards using the scooting technique afforded by this minimalist design.

Scale was 12" to the foot.