Okay, have you heard of putting Fruit Loops on people's lawns before rain?

[snowwite]

That's what I said. We lived next door to a teacher and her trees got TPd all the time. Sure wasn't out of love and popularity, I guarantee.

Where I grew up, TPing was along the same lines as "egging". Something you did to someone you didn't like or wanted to get back at.

Same here.

 

[Saffron]

Eggs are destructive, so is salt. I can see where someone would get charges pressed against them for using eggs to destroy someone's property. There's nothing friendly about eggs or salt drying on the paint of your house or car.

In our school we had "Senior Prank Day" set aside for seniors to pull pranks on fellow seniors, fellow students or faculty members. Everyone, even the local newspapers, looked forward to the day. The faculty and parents never looked forward to the secret "Senior Cut Day" though when everyone would cut school and end up at some state park partying.

 

[snowwite]

AFter flowers it could escalate to plastic flamingos. Oh the horror! QUOTE]

GUILTY!!! Guess DH and I are quite the little pranksters! We've had 4 sets of new neighbors directly across from us since we've lived in this house and every Christmas we "welcome" them with a large flock of Flamingos! They're tacky, traffic stopping and they've (neighbors) always loved them. They get their licks in, too. Should have seen the pig on our front porch!!!

Maybe that is why you have had 4 sets of new neighbors
Just kidding

 

[mickeysgal]

GUILTY!!! Guess DH and I are quite the little pranksters! We've had 4 sets of new neighbors directly across from us since we've lived in this house and every Christmas we "welcome" them with a large flock of Flamingos! They're tacky, traffic stopping and they've (neighbors) always loved them. They get their licks in, too. Should have seen the pig on our front porch!!!

And perhaps this is why you've had 4 sets of neighbors across from you.

 

[mickeysgal]

Oh goodness. Weren't any of you folks teenagers? Yeah, I did all of this and more. But I never drank, partied or did drugs. Never got a speeding ticket, never had sex, never stole anything and the list goes on.

What our group did do--covering an entire lawn with fast food ketchup packages, soybeans in the grass(this was done to my house.) picking up Xmas trees left out for the garbage and delivering them to someone else, gathering up a bunch of model home signs and placing them all in one persons lawn, delivering two bathtubs to two separate people's houses complete with water and goldfish in them, dried split peas poured through the open sunroof on cars, packing peanuts in a car and on the lawn, a garbage can full of lemons and oranges leaning against the door so when you opened it they fell in, a whole barnyard scene including a scarecrow that held a sign saying "My name is Ted" (from the Wanna Be a Cowboy song) and throwing tortillas on someone's roof. (I didn't do that one and it was messy by morning.)

Disneymom3, you win for most creative. You had a full rotation of pranks in your arsenal.

 

[Serena]

Beth, if JC wants a rainbow, I've got a suggestion. Wait, do you guys get any snow? Using a squirtgun with water and food coloring makes a colorful yard.
If it's freezing outside, the colored water also makes "jewels".

 

[JadenLayne]

Nope no snow here, ever, well hardly ever.

I can't believe I never came back to this thread. Nope he didn't Fruit Loop anything they ended up Tping friend's houses and then the next day they cleaned it up.

Maggie you had me laughing my butt off! My son in the penitentury for forking yards!

Around here it is done by friends, to friends. It is definitely a popularity thing as opposed to someone you don't like. They are also always made to help clean up and half the time, we the parent are driving them around and the other parent know we are coming and take their child where they can't catch us. It's not just to any stranger.

I've never heard of salting either but when we were seniors we took the Pumpkin's that you fill with leaves and put them all in our favorite teacher's yard. I bet there were 100 of those big old pumpkins. We also pink flamingoed our school.

I still think it's harmless fun as long as it's friends doing it to friends.

 

[bettyann29]

I would think the fruit loops would be a mess.. Around here tping is done to friends.. its not a thing that is done to someone you dont like..

Once a year at DD15 birthday party all the girls who spend the night get to go tping .. The 2 rules I do have is if you get caught you will clean it up and if its going to rain that night than there is no tping.. It would be a total mess if it sticks because it gets wet..

Believe me.. Ive had my share of tping to my house

 

[corie161]

Around here it's generally a popularity thing more than a hate thing. At Homecoming it's pretty much a given that all the candidates get TP'd.

When I was in school I spent the night at a friends who lived in the country. Down the road was another classmate of ours, and we had plans to TP him. We started out but decided we were too scared to walk down the gravel road, didn't know what animals might be out there, so we TP'd my friends house, where I was staying instead. How dumb was that! We cleaned it up the next day.

 

[taximomfor4]

Oh goodness. Weren't any of you folks teenagers? Yeah, I did all of this and more. But I never drank, partied or did drugs. Never got a speeding ticket, never had sex, never stole anything and the list goes on.

What our group did do--gathering up a bunch of model home signs, and placing them all in one persons lawn

Umm, doesn't this mean that you, in fact, STOLE things?

About the pranking, in my high school, it was done to people we did NOT like. And no, I didn't participate at all. I had enough chores without worrying about cleaning up TP. We were not even allowed to WALK on other people's lawns, let alone throw things into their trees and bushes. We could make a sign for their locker, etc...have balloon bouquet delivered to their house... get a giant card and everyone sign it...etc. But pranking was not allowed and definitely discouraged. I did see the occastional TP'ed house, and it was always the poor, constantly picked on kid's house.

 

[Crankyshank]

Around here, TPing is done to someone you don't like. I've never heard of forking or anything else as popularity. I fail to see how I should feel special spending an entire afternoon cleaning up my front yard

 

[BeNJeNWaFFLe]

I guess TP'ing really is a regional thing. Around here, especially during Homecoming, it's friends doing it to friends. The football team TP's each other. It's not meant to me mean. When I was a HS senior, the school was TP'ed on the last day of classes. Out of all of the things that could have been done, toilet paper was the least harmful. And it has happened just about every year so the school expects it, it's tradition.

For awhile my friends were passing around a plastic halloween skeleton. You'd wake up in the morning to find it on (or in) your car. It was meant as a joke between friends. In college we had opened our main door to find it full of post it notes with a written message. It was a friend who did it. So we went and put post it notes on their door. We cleaned it up (because the RA's wouldn't allow it) so instead we did it to each others walls. It was all in good fun. If at any time someone wasn't happy about it, we would have stopped.

I wouldn't condone anyone doing it to be nasty or to harm others property (i.e. salting someones lawn). I wouldn't be mad if it was a harmless running joke between friends, who later clean it up themselves.

 

[monsterkitty]

We used to not only TP people (around here it is a good thing to get tp-ed), but we also did the fork thing, and we used Frosted Flakes because the birds seemed to like those better than the cheap corn flakes.

We would also take Oreo cookies, take them apart, and stick them to the windows using the filling. If there was no filling on one side, we would eat it. We did switch to generic Oreos because we didn't really like wasting perfectly good Oreos. Oh, the Double stuff worked better than the regular!.

Now, as mature adults, we are passing around a flock of flamingos in our neighborhood. Our stuffy HOA has banned yard decorations, even at holidays, so my husband, our great neighbors, and I bought some flamingos. They seem to migrate from one yard to the next each weekend.

I'm going to try the food coloring in a squirt gun next time it rains!

 

[Liberty Belle]

I had never heard of forking. I only TP'd someone's house once when I was a teen. The big thing that we did (yes, I know it's illegal and I am thoroughly ashamed) is taking for sale signs from one person's yard and sticking them in another yard (usually a friend, occasionally an enemy).

 

[Melissa R]

OK, so I'm gonna join the grumpy homeowner side here.....

First off, if I ever find out that one of my boys does anything like any of this to someone's house, I'll kill them!

I don't side with the 'innocent fun' crowd. Here's why. First, we currently have neighbors whose boys are on sports teams. They have been TPed twice in the year we've lived here. Sure, all in fun. But then the TP blew out of their trees and into our yard. I'm really not interested in cleaning up someone else's "fun."

My other problem - to get back at the kids who TPed them, the mom took her son around town and stole political campaign signs, subdivision signs, for sale signs, and any other advertising signs that they could find and put them all in the yard of the family they were 'getting.' What about the people who paid for those signs? Do you think it's all just innocent fun? What about when they have to pay money to go out and buy new signs to replace the ones that were stolen "in good fun?" I seriously doubt it.

 

[JadenLayne]

Different strokes I guess but I sure am glad I'm not a grump. Not calling anyone particular a grump but I kind of feel sorry for people who can't have innocent fun. My goodness cleaning up toilet paper is really not that big of a deal especially when it creates memories that your kids will remember forever (as we've seen with plenty of adults here laughing over what they did as teens.)

Oh well I'll continue to let me son be involved and yep I'll even drive them around if they want and I may even HELP them! "gasp, gasp"

If the worst thing my son ever does is TP or Fork or even Fruit Loop a friend's house then I'm pretty darned proud of him and hope that when he's an adult he drives his kids around too!

 

[Crankyshank]

You can pull plenty of pranks, have wonderful memories of mischief, and have a happy childhood without sticking forks in someone's yard or TPing someone's house. Crazy concept, I know.

I guess I don't understand the intolerance for regional differences here and calling someone a grump because they would take issue with it happening to them. It's all well and good if it's something done frequently in your area, but in others it's only done with malicious intent.

 

[JadenLayne]

I would be intolerable if it was done with malicious intent. I only think people are grumps when it's done in fun and they don't want their kid's to participate. Again WHEN IT'S DONE IN FUN FROM FRIEND TO FRIEND, not to strangers and not to people they don't like. That's all I'm saying. If that makes me a horrible person or parent, then Oh well.

 

[akhenaten]

I don't think I am a grump..but none of this was done in my area and I think it is weird!
I also wonder what the fast food places who get their forks and ketchup stolen for these pranks think? And also who puts the for sale signs etc. back when the Prank is over. Is all of this just added into a companies losses...?

Sorry but my kids would not be doing any of that..especially if they had to "innocently" steal things to participate.....

The only thing close to this in our area is Cabbage night (also called mischief night) but my kids don't go out.... the only year they were on my lawn..my daughter almost lost her eyesight from an egg that was whipped at us by the neighborhood "troubled " boy. So they really stay in the house now!!

 

[JadenLayne]

My child would not participate in stealing anything, like for sale signs. It is limited to the forking (which we buy) and the TP (which we buy). The Fruit Loops is just a hear say thing and I don't know anyone who has actually done it. Anything that he did for fun to friends would NOT be anything stolen and would not involve anything like eggs or salt. The only thing they use is the Forks and TP. Nothing else although I think buying some Pink Flamingos would go over well.

I don't blame anyone for not wanting their children to steal, that's a whole different thing.