You can take Caitlin Clark out of Des Moines, but you can’t take Des Moines out of Caitlin Clark.
Driving the news: The Indiana Fever rookie recently shared our city’s Beggars’ Night tradition as the source of where she gets her jokes.
- “I know my mom is a stickler about it. If you don’t tell a joke, you don’t get any candy,” Clark said during a press conference last Sunday.
Flashback: The tradition stems as far back as World War II, according to the Des Moines Public Library.
- Back then, the Des Moines’ Parks and Rec Department was figuring out a way to dissuade kids from causing mayhem like breaking windows and setting things on fire.
- In 1938, the solution — Beggars’ Night — was born. Kids wouldn’t get candy unless they performed a trick or a riddle.
- Plus: It tamed Halloween mischief by spacing out festivities over two days.
