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
no one ever gave us anything
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.
