10/28
Anoka doesn’t just call itself the Halloween Capital of the World. They’ve trademarked it. And they had to: Back in the early 1900s, youth relished the holiday as a chance to tip outhouses over, lather soap all over windows, and release the area cows. Good civic leaders used the old “Throw them a parade instead” technique. In 1920, parents tricked more than 1,000 Anoka children into costuming up on Halloween and enjoying themselves in a damn near civil fashion typical of today’s kid-friendly, no-gore march down Main Street. While the volunteer board that organizes Halloween events considered barring candy distribution this year (which, thrown, prompts kids to run into the street), public consensus is: Uh, consider something else.
