Gate Night

When I was growing up in Oregon, we lived in a small (pop. 1500) town that was kind of out in the boonies. For most of the year it was snowed in. It was so small (how small was it?) that they still had cattle drives through the middle of town.

Anyway, the night before Halloween was called "Gate Night." Why, you may ask? Because this was the night we stole gates.

Well, okay, to be technically correct not me, but the older kids would go out and steal the gates from people's fences and hide them.

And I don't mean just the gates on the yards in towns...they would steal them from the cattle pens, too, and let all the animals loose. The cop hated it (his name was Smokey!).

Do you suppose they still do that? I don't know...I haven't been in that town in years.

Did anyone else have that tradition?