this mess still happened to me in the 90's and to make things worse id get a whoopin from each parent becuase they don't communicate and tell one another ya already got whooped lol. In their defense it probably wasn't that cool of me to take everybody on the blocks newspaper an start a bon fire in the front yard. 
Hell in our day communication had nothing to do with it.
If your neighbor whooped you for something. You didnt dare complain or tell your parents about it because they would only say and I quote "Well what did you do to deserve it?"
"nothing" was never an acceptable or a believed answer
Then you would get whooped again not only for what you did. But for causing your parents the embarrassment and of putting the neighbor through the trauma of having to whoop you.
And whooping were real whoopings. Like with a belt. My fathers favorite
My mother got tired of breaking wooden spoons on me so she went to a construction site and got a piece of wood flooring.
After I hid that on her I remember one time getting it with a metal soup ladle for spilling shoe die in the carpet.