TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 B3
roaming the neighborhood —
and where before World War II
the exhortation wasn’t “trick or
treat” but “soap or eats.” (“An
unveiled threat if ever there was
one,” he noted.)
George moved to the D.C. area
in the 1960s. “Serious media
discussions between the dates
arose and eventually local
governments began getting into
the act, mandating which night
the kids could go out,” he wrote.
“Governments are like that; they
can’t leave anything alone.”
Perhaps. But I wonder if
television and other forms of
mass communication are to
blame. Once upon a time, every
community had its own
traditions, born and nurtured in
isolation.
Then TV came into our homes,
with its Halloween specials, its
national advertisements and its
homogenizing influence.
Halloween was simplified,
becoming a single night for
tricking and treating, for beggars
and mischief-makers.
That’s my theory, anyway.
[email protected]
Twitter: @johnkelly For previous columns, visit
washingtonpost.com/john-kelly.we called Mischief Night on the
30th,” she wrote. “It involved,
soaping windows, toilet
papering trees, and throwing
eggs in some instances.”
Judy Martins added another
term, one she and her peers in
northern New Jersey used in the
1950s. “We called the night
before Halloween Cabbage
Night,” Judy wrote. “I don’t know
why. That was the night we went
out and soaped windows and did
other dirty tricks.”
Boy, windows must have really
been clean back then. All that
soap!
Finally, I heard from the
woman whose 1998 letter to The
Post describing Beggar’s Night I
quoted in my column. She was
known then as Mary Page Cobb
and is now Mary Page Drake.
She turned 90 on May 24 and
lives in Annapolis.
Mary said Beggar’s Night
ended under pressure from local
jurisdictions. “It was a request
from the police all over,” she
wrote. “They thought they would
have less work to do if we, the
public, would confine ourselves
to the one date.”
George Hamlin of Clarksville
grew up Des Moines, where
Oct. 30 was the night forin Wilmington, Del., in the
1930s. “There was only the
mischief of such ‘tricks’ as
soaping windows, ringing
doorbells and running away, or
decorating trees with rolls of
toilet tissue,” wrote Virginia, who
lives in Silver Spring now.
“Halloween was celebrated on
Oct. 31 by costumed beggars in
search of treats.”
The same name — Mischief
Night — was employed in
Philadelphia, wrote
Richard Ronollo, who grew up
there in the late 1940s and early
’50s. “As the name implies,
ringing front door bells, then
running away, and soaping up
car windows were common
practices,” wrote Richard, who
lives in Tysons now.
Twenty years later, Philly kids
were still “celebrating” Mischief
Night, wrote Ted Seale, who
grew up in Bucks County, Pa.
Kids toilet-papered yards and
sprayed Silly String on doorways
and cars. “At least that’s what I
heard,” claimed Ted, who lives in
Rockville now.
That would also have been
familiar to Maureen Gallagher,
who grew up in Westchester
County, north of New York City:
“In the 1960s-’70s we had whatLast week, I
wrote about
Beggar’s Night,
which was sort
of like
Halloween, but
celebrated in
the Washington
area on Oct. 30,
not the 31st.
The tradition has vanished,
but it made a strong impression
on those who experienced it
firsthand.
“Growing up in Fairlington in
the 1940s, we lived in a kids’
paradise,” wrote Fran
Goldscheider. “For Halloween
we went out trick or treating
both nights — the 30th and the
31st — and were much offended
when folks weren’t prepared.”
It was a similar practice in
Maryland. Susan Collins from
Riverdale also remembers
Beggar’s Night. “Here in my part
of P.G. County we’d go trick or
treating on both nights, usually
to different areas on each night,”
she wrote. “And not with teeny-
weeny little pumpkin buckets,
but with grocery bags or
pillowcases. We’d wind up
having candy until Christmas!”
Joan Mulholland said that
when she was growing up in
Arlington in the mid-1940s, kids
went trick-or-treating on
Beggar’s Night, on Halloween
and on an additional night. It
was called Pennies’ Night and
was when any leftover candy was
handed out. Wrote Joan: “I think
I got the names in the right
order, but there were three
nights: Halloween, and the
nights either side of Halloween.”
A reader named Rebecca said
they also had three nights of
trick-or-treating when she grew
up in Western New York state. In
addition to Beggar’s Night and
Halloween, there was what they
called Garbage Night, celebrated
on Nov. 1.
“The night after Halloween we
all got the chance to scarf up the
leftovers from adults that hated
keeping and eating the rest,” she
wrote. “Sure, the weather didn’t
always cooperate but a little
snow kept you moving!”
While Washington and its
environs had Beggar’s Night,
other cities east of the
Mississippi had a more sinister
moniker for Oct. 30: Mischief
Night.
“No treats were sought,” wrote
Virginia Stewart, who grew up
Did TV ruin Halloween’s multi-night affair? Maybe.
John
Kelly's
Washington
ROSS D. FRANKLIN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
A fan dressed in a Halloween costume cheers during the second half of the San Francisco 49ers’ game
with the Arizona Cardinals. In years past, kids celebrated Mischief Night, Beggar’s Night and more.Members of the Capital Area
Regional Fugitive Task Force
arrested Tyrell Powell, 22, of
Southeast Washington.
Powell is charged with first-
degree murder while armed in
the shooting of Semaj
Alsobrooks, of Northeast, who
was attacked Sept. 4 in the 3900
block of East Capitol Street.
Another man who was shot
survived, police said.
Authorities did not describe a
possible motive in the shooting.
— Peter HermannVIRGINIATeen dies in crash
in Fairfax CountyA teenager was killed Sunday
evening and a second teenager
seriously injured in a crash in
Fairfax County, police said.
An initial police investigation
found that a 2010 Kia Forte with
five teenagers inside was headed
eastbound on Stuart Mill Road in
the Oakton area when it ran off
the road and struck a tree.
Police said alcohol and drugs
do not appear to be factors in the
crash. But officials said the
“possibility of speed being a
factor is still being investigated.”
The name of the teenager who
died was not given by police
officials due to a law in Virginia
that prohibits the release of a
minor’s name to the public.
— Martin WeilTHE DISTRICTMt. Pleasant shooting
leaves 1 dead, 1 injuredTwo men were shot, one
fatally, Monday morning inside
an apartment in Northwest
Washington’s Mount Pleasant
neighborhood, D.C. police said.
A third man ran injured from
the apartment building and into
a nearby convenience store on
Mount Pleasant Street. Police
initially said the man might have
been stabbed, but they were
awaiting word from doctors for a
definitive determination.
Dustin Sternbeck, a police
spokesman, said one of the men
died at a hospital and the two
other men were being treated in
critical condition. No lookout for
an assailant was given.
The incident was reported to
police about 6:45 a.m. and
occurred in a building in the
3100 block of 16th Street NW,
near Irving Street NW, and
across the street from a school.
— Peter HermannSuspect arrested
in fatal shooting in NED.C. police on Monday
arrested a suspect in the death of
a 22-year-old man who was shot
in September in Northeast
Washington, according to
authorities.LOCAL DIGESTbe a single speed limit for these
devices, rather than attempting to
set distinct speed limits for side-
walk and roadway operation,” Ma-
rootian said.
DDOT recently announced a
plan to limit the number of com-
panies authorized to operate
scooters in the city to four, allow-
ing each to deploy as many as
2,500 devices. Under that plan, the
companies will also have the
choice to apply for a separate per-
mit to operate bikes — as many as
2,500 each — for a total of 10,000
bikes citywide.
The new guidelines would
bring exponential growth to the
program that now permits eight
companies to operate 5,235 scoot-
ers combined. One company,
Jump, also operates e-bikes.
Nearly 1 in 6 District residents
used e-scooters in the past year,
according to a recent Washington
Post poll, including 6 percent who
used them at least a few times a
week.
[email protected]which regulates the services. The
city agency has established fees
for operators and a cap on the
number of scooters each company
is allowed to deploy.
DDOT Director Jeff Marootian
told the council that, despite the
challenges, the agency views
scooters and other personal mo-
bility programs as tools to address
residents’ travel needs. He said in
fiscal 2019, there were nearly
5.3 million trips on shared bikes
and scooters in the city. To address
concerns about sidewalk clutter
and conflicts with pedestrians, he
said, the city is creating more on-
street parking zones for scooters
and bikes.
“We require the companies to
ensure users know the rules,” Ma-
rootian said.
He said DDOT opposes Cheh’s
proposal to increase the speed
limit for scooters to 15 mph from
10 mph on streets or bike lanes
and reduce it to 6 mph on side-
walks.
“DDOT recommends that theregone down over time,” said Han-
nah Smith, senior manager at
Bird.
Scooter users and companies
spoke against any effort to ban
riding on sidewalks citywide, cit-
ing a lack of in-road infrastructure
where scooter riders would feel
safe.
“I know the sidewalks are a
huge issue, but there are many
areas of the city where you cannot
safely ride on the road,” said An-
drew Shapiro, a frequent scooter
user. “You don’t have any other
options.”
Robert Gardner, Lime’s director
of government relations for the
Washington region, said the com-
pany will continue to urge the
council not to be “overly prescrip-
tive and instead to use data to
drive decision-making. ”
Thousands of city residents rely
on scooter services, he said. “It’s
critical we don’t stifle their use
and continued adoption.”
The rules in the council bill
mirror some already set by DDOT,allows scooters to continue to be
ridden on sidewalks outside of the
central business district.
“It lacks any enforcement
mechanism whatsoever, and it
doesn’t define liability when acci-
dents occur,” said Reichert, who
for months has been documenting
badly parked scooters and illegal
riding behaviors such as two peo-
ple riding one scooter or riders
ignoring the ban on riding on
downtown sidewalks.
Some company representatives
and scooter supporters warned
that city officials may be over-
regulating and failing to take into
consideration the high demand
for the devices, even after dark.
Representatives from Bird, Lime,
Lyft, Skip and Spin offered vague
answers to questions about liabili-
ty waivers and how they ensure
users follow the rules of the road
and respond to citizen com-
plaints. Some said their compa-
nies offer incentives for good park-
ing, but acknowledged challenges
tracking bad riding behaviors.
“Complaints have definitelyCheh introduced the proposal
in June in part, she said, because
scooters have created a “Wild
West” environment. Cheh an-
nounced at the start of the hearing
that, following input from resi-
dents and business leaders, she
had dropped a controversial pro-
vision in the bill that would ban
their use between 10 p.m. and
4 a.m.
Brooke Finland, a Ward 4 resi-
dent, urged the city to ban the
scooters, recounting how her 8-
year-old son was struck by a Lime
scooter while playing on a side-
walk. He was hospitalized with
serious injuries in what was “a
terrifying and emotional experi-
ence,” she said.
“If your children cannot play
safely at the neighborhood park,
where can they?” she asked, urg-
ing the panel that if it does not ban
the devices to enforce the rules,
including the prohibition of mul-
tiple riders on one scooter, then it
should at least require helmet use
and enforce the requirement that
riders be at least 18. She also lob-
bied for a ban on scooters in school
zones.
“Scooters need to be banned
from sidewalks,” she said. But she
asked: “Is it actually feasible to
enforce these rules? Are police
going to ticket users?”
Steven Reichert, a personal fit-
ness trainer who works with the
elderly and people with disabili-
ties who struggle to navigate city
streets, said city regulations, and
the proposal before the council, do
not do enough to address the side-
walk conflicts. Cheh’s bill, he said,tating the transportation of pa-
trons and workers to bars and
restaurants. Between the two
sides, residents and officials ap-
peared to agree on one thing:
There is a lack of enforcement of
scooter rules.
“Who is enforcing?” Chuck El-
kins, an advisory neighborhood
commissioner representing upper
Northwest Washington, asked the
panel’s transportation committee.
“Part of the problem is we have
these rules, and people know they
really don’t have to abide by them.”
Council member Mary M. Cheh
(D-Ward 3), who chaired the hear-
ing, was the only council member
present for the entirety of the
hearing; another member,
Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), was
there for opening remarks and
left.
Cheh said serious concerns
about scooters are in part because
the technology is so new that the
city does not have a scooter cul-
ture, resulting “in many users ne-
glecting to follow important safe-
ty rules.”
“Many scooter users weave in
and out of pedestrians on the side-
walk at high speeds, do not follow
important safety rules, ride while
inebriated and routinely discard
scooters that block pedestrian
walkways, private driveways and
handicap-accessible ramps,” Cheh
said. “Users have also been seen
riding with two people on a single
scooter, which is both against the
rules and extremely dangerous.
This bad behavior is not just dan-
gerous to the user, but to the pub-
lic at large as well.”
The debate comes as scooter
use appears to be on the rise in the
District, one of the first U.S. cities
to allow the services, and as the
District Department of Transpor-
tation moves to establish new
rules for the services next year,
seeking to reduce the number of
operators while doubling the
number of scooters on city streets.
Residents offered their views
on a bill that aims to “control”
scooter operations, setting rules
for where scooters can be parked
and establishing new speed limits.
The legislation would give DDOT
the authority to fine operators
that fail to address complaints and
revoke their operations permit if
they consistently fail to abide by
the rules.
SCOOTERS FROM B1
Debate on e-scooters comes as their use appears to be on the rise in the District
MATT MCCLAIN/THE WASHINGTON POST
An electric scooter lies on the
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