Did You Ever Wonder Why Parents Inspect Their Kids’ Halloween Candy?
Sure, it is probably a good idea to rifle through all the Halloween candy, to make sure that it looks untouched and un-tampered-with. You know, maybe eat a piece or five in the process. You have to check it for poison, right?!?
But, did you ever wonder WHY checking candy became a thing on Halloween?
It appears to go all the way back to the year 1964. Ms. Helen Pfeil who lived in Long Island, New York, had experienced ENOUGH of older children trying to get free candy by saying they were participating in Halloween.
She believed Trick-Or-Treating should be for the younger kids ONLY. And, by dang it, she was going to take it upon herself to teach these older kids a lesson — try to take HER candy, will you!
She came up with a BRIGHT idea. *Insert Eyeroll Here* She would give the kids that came to HER door things that were definitely NOT candy.
The only problem was, she gave out things like arsenic laced ant poison, dog biscuits wrapped in aluminum foil, and Brillo-type pads.
She wasn’t crazy AT ALL. *That was totally sarcasm*
A judge found that she was a little bit mentally unstable (my words), and committed her to Central Islip State Hospital for observation.
I’m sure there were other such weird cases back in the day, but this one was one of the first to make national news.
There are some newer cases of tainted candy — in 1970 someone was allegedly killed by some candy that had been sprinkled with heroine, and years later there was a poisoned pixie stick — but in all of these cases, it wound up being a family member that had it in for the recipient of the poisoned candy.
Does this mean you shouldn’t check all the candy to make sure it hasn’t been tampered with? Heck no! There are too many weirdos out there, and you are better to be safe than sorry!
