this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2023
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The latter. Although kids just used to ask for money.
As a kid in the UK in the 80s we never did the penny for the guy thing. No one ever gave us anything
Not surprised. What was a penny worth in the 80s? My dad and Grandmother were English and they told me about doing it when they were kids in the 1910s and the 1930s.
While the phrase was penny for the guy that was not the expectation.
Might be geographical I was out Glasgow way back then
In 1910??! You're doing well, I have to say!
It was definitely a penny when they were kids. That link said it started dying out by the mid-20th century. I thought people just went around asking for bonfire wood after that.
That's what we did. To the point about August the adults would start hording scrap wood rather than binning it. That was until the bigger kids started lighting it early so. This resulted in us only having 1 day to build it
Well, they won't of you don't ask!
Perhaps it was regional. I was also a kid in the UK (midlands) in the 80's and I, my brother and a few of the other lads from the estate went door to door with "penny for the guy" not everyone answered, but we got enough change to buy sweets.
Didn't trick or treat back then though.