Trick or treat etiquette?

The was year one of trick or treat for me in my new neighborhood. For the last 10 years, I had lived in the country, a condo, a house with no sidewalk on a main drag and a slew of apartments.

Our neighborhood is kind of nice (being a journalist, I have the smallest house on the block), but we're not too far away from some rundown blocks.

Apparently our neighborhood is a desired area for trick-or-treaters. I've never noticed this in any other area I've lived in, but there were cars parked wall-to-wall on the boulevard up the block from my place. Others drove their kids on to our street and others, stopping by the houses with lights on.

Kids interloping into the neighborhood? I've got no problem with this, I used to do it too.

But I used to do it on foot, or at best on a bike. Not once in my life was I ever trucked around, cherry-picking houses with their lights on. Seems kind of lame to me, like its cheating or something.

Thoughts?

 

in today's society, it's normal.

i had a few mini-vans and SUVs pull up to the front of my house, and about a dozen kids piled out. i don't mind -- as long as they have good costumes.
don't paint your face blue, grab a baby blanket and call yourself "crib death" .... on second thought, i don't mind that either.

 

I was pretty liberally handing out candy, grabbing a handful of shit for the kiddos. Then some shithead, probably 8 or 9, comes in a zombie mask and goes, "GIMMIE SOME CANDY!"

Dude got one mini Tootsie roll. Suck on that, you little fucker.

 

Short version of Bubs' post:

Bubs has no candy left over for himself because of all these rugrats who were bussed in and took all the good stuff.

 

Well, I'm afraid it's a different world today.

Blame Dateline NBC maybe.

Most parents wouldn't dream of letting their kids go wandering even their own neighborhoods without being close by.

 

Fuck that noise. I horded all the flavored Tootsie rolls before they showed up. I ain't goin' out like that.

Also, my city has two days of trick-or-treating -- yesterday and today. In a way it worked out, as it was near 70 yesterday and in the mid 40s tonight, but two days of trick-or-treating? No wonder our nation is fatter than fuck.

On the cuter side, I took my daughter out for a while tonight. She's 4, and when we'd confront another group of trick-or-treaters, she'd call them "customers". She say, "Look daddy, there's another group of customers."

And my 3-year-old was inviting trick-or-treaters in the house. "C'mon in! Come in and play."

 

Do you all give candy to kids without costumes? My mother always talked all kinds of shit like she refused to do it, but she always chickened out when it came time. We lived in a pretty middle class neighborhood, bordering on upper middle, so it wasn't like kids were too poor to get costumes, some were just too lazy.

I was thinking about that tonight as kids kept coming to my door without costumes, some like 14 and 15. Why am I giving you candy, kids?

My neighborhood ain't exactly affluent, so I just gave em candy anyway, figuring maybe a costume was too much of luxury expense in some cases, but it bugged me. Not quite as much as the little 5-year-old who said, "Gimmie more" when I gave him one candy bar, then "I want another" after I gave him a second. Mom just stood there at the bottom of the steps with her arms folded, staring off into space, oblivious. You stay classy, lady.

 

I used to scream...

Trick or treat
smell my feet
give me something good to eat
if you don't
i don't care
i'll fuck your daughter.


Is that proper etiquette?

 

Honestly, of the many kids I gave candy to tonight, I think they all had costumes. Even the clearly poor kids who were guest-starring on my street.

Here's another trend I don't get -- slutty kids costumes. I'm not talking mid-teen, I'm talking like, 11-year-olds and under.

Saw some girl -- couldn't have been over 10 -- dressed up in a nurse's costume that looked like Daryl Hannah from Kill Bill.

What the fuck? And, what a mixed message. On one hand, parents feel safer driving their kids around. OK, I'm cool with that. But on the other, they don't think twice about dressing them up as Myspace child porn fodder?

Our country has so many fucked-up paradoxes.

 

I was actually quite proud of the kids that came by last night. Had about 30 or 40 of them, all of them were dressed up (I know: Whatchu want, a cookie?), all but one or two said thank you, and only one asked for an alternate piece of candy over what I gave her.

The biggest problem is I had to say, "What do you say?" when half of them came to the door silently. Maybe they were timid. I definitely get a kick out of how happy some of these kids get on Halloween.

 

I told a couple of them that I'll take the trick. They didnt know what to say while their moms laughed.

And yeah, Bubs. The Tootsie Roll Flavor Rolls didn't make it out to the masses

 

My parents live on the best trick-or-treating street in town and my mom said they had about 350 people come by last night. Some were neighborhood kids, some were from the nearby university married housing and some were from who knows where.

She said she and my dad sat out on the porch all night handing out candy and visiting with people. Most enjoyable night she's had in a long time, she said.