What is cabbage night?

RG: “It’s the night before Halloween. Some people called it mischief night, but we always called it cabbage night. But it was basically a mischief night, you’d throw toilet paper at houses and throw eggs and people would write in shaving cream in people’s driveways. It was really fun and just really counterproductive. People you didn’t like  you would egg their house, we had egg fights, put shaving cream on people”

Would you go out with your friends?

RG: “You would go out in packs. Packs of your friends, I was with all guys but girls did it too. And then the police would chase us around, I got caught by the cops a couple times and they put all the eggs in my pockets and hit you with your night stick and the eggs would crack in your pockets. That happened to me a couple times”

Would you target certain people?

RG: “Oh ya. If you had someone crazy in your neighborhood you’d go after them, there was specific targets you’d go after. There was a lady who lived around the corner from us who called the cops on us all the time because she was obsessed with her lawn”

“Cabbage night” was interesting because it was similar to Halloween in that it was acceptable to do things you normally couldn’t do. Just as on Halloween you were supposed to take strangers from candy, which you normally couldn’t do, cabbage night encouraged mischievous activities that were normally prohibited. Although there were slight repercussions, it was generally acceptable for young kids to wreak havoc on a town.