Iowa Almanac
Iowa Almanac -- Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Begging door to door. More from the Iowa Almanac in a moment. Election Day is Tuesday November 5th. Now is the time to make a plan. Whether you plan to vote absentee by mail in person at your county auditor's office before Election Day or at your polling place on November 5th, it's important you take steps now to make your plan at voterready.iowa.gov. Remember Election Day is Tuesday November 5th. Buy more information at voterready.iowa.gov. This message presented by the Iowa Secretary of State. In the 1930s, Halloween in Des Moines was focused more on vandalism than going door to door for trees. Police there responded to a record 550 calls of vandalism in one year alone. The director of what is now the Parks and Rec Department, Katherine Krieg, came up with a campaign to encourage less destructive forms of fun. In 1938, the city set aside October 30th as beggars' night, encouraging children on that date only to go door to door and say the phrase "tricks" for eats. The city council said eats should be given only if such a trick as a song, a poem, a stunt, or a musical number, either solo or in group participation, is presented. The beggars' night program worked. By the mid-1940s, the number of Halloween police calls in Iowa's capital city had been cut by more than half. There was a downside though, some of the worst jokes and riddles ever have been told as part of the yearly event. Katherine Krieg retired in 1974 after 43 years on the job. Her yearly reminders to make children work for their Halloween candy were carried by local media for parts of five different decades. She died in 1999 at the age of 94, but her legacy is intact today. The first beggars' night in Des Moines where children said "tricks" for eats and were then held to it was on this date in 1938. And that's Iowa Almanac for October 30th. There's more online at IowaAlmanac.com. Until tomorrow, I'm Jeff Stein.