18 Old-School Halloween Traditions That Would Never Fly Today

Retro Halloween is officially back. Cute is out, and decorations have returned to scaring the living daylights out of even the bravest trick-or-treater (or Home Depot shopper).

Of course, the costume aisle tells a different story. You’ve got Woodys and Buzzes everywhere (thanks, “Toy Story 5”), the now-classic “K-Pop Demon Hunters,” and Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Spider-Man everywhere. They’re (probably) licensed, (probably) quite comfortable and, unlike what we wore back in the ’80s, (probably) breathable and less flammable.

READ MORE: Childhood Myths We Accepted as Absolute Fact (and Maybe Still Do)

As parenting styles changed, so did Halloween. Gone are the days of the unsupervised free-for-all. No more parents yelling, “Be home by 9, and not in the back of a police car!” No more kids roaming the dark like escaped convicts, dragging Mom’s least favorite pillowcases and squinting through plastic masks held on by a rubber band and a very, very small staple. No apps telling you where the best candy houses were. No trunk-or-treating. No safety escorts.

And with Halloween landing on a Saturday this year, there’s no school-night excuse to cut it short. This is the closest we’ll get to (dare I say it) the old days.

So grab your plastic pumpkin bucket and take an unlit stroll back in time. If you remember these, you remember old-school Halloween.