Spooky Halloween!

[SJ Staff]

Trick or treat! Happy Halloween, everyone! What's your favorite treat, candy, or chocolates?

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

Favorite treat:

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

It’s 7:15 p.m. EDT. Do you know where your little monsters are?

Because they sure ain’t trick-or-treating in my neighborhood.

 

[waterytart]

We live in a neighborhood people move to because of the schools. We had pumpkins on the front porch, porch lights on, front room lights on, two minivans in the driveway. Family home where people are home, right? The doorbell rang six times.

 

[Here me roar]

We had a decent night, but you know what was missing? All the many immigrant families who call my area home. Some have been detained. Others are hiding. It's so distressing.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

I've heard very few were in our neighborhood - talked with a relative who also lives there. I'm out of town on assignment in two cities, neither a convenient drive from home, over two days.

Guess I won't have to buy any candy anytime soon.

 

[waterytart]

We had a decent night, but you know what was missing? All the many immigrant families who call my area home. Some have been detained. Others are hiding. It's so distressing.

“I can’t take my kids trick or treating because I’m afraid of the American government.”

We have become the thing on the other side of the door.

 

[UNCGrad]

We're in a new neighborhood but also had a lot fewer than I expected. (And fewer opportunities, thus, to show off my "Future Ghost" T-shirt. Drat.)

What's the deal with that? I'm hearing similar things from all over.

 

[DanOregon]

I usually buy pumpkins (don't carve them) and candy. Just to be festive. Didn't this year. I get home from work past trick or treater time and they don't come to my door anyway. We put together goody bags at work for the employee's kids and they seemed to appreciate them, so that was fun.

 

[wicked]

We got four kids. Two of them were babies. I wasn’t the biggest Halloween kid growing up, but it saddens me a tad.

 

[Neutral Corner]

Not one kid came to our house.

But.

21st Century Schizoid Pumpkin! (No, I didn't make it, stole the image cuz it was so good.)

 

[OscarMadison]

“I can’t take my kids trick or treating because I’m afraid of the American government.”

We have become the thing on the other side of the door.

I am imagining this illustrated by Shel Silverstein.

 

[I Should Coco]

We live in a neighborhood people move to because of the schools. We had pumpkins on the front porch, porch lights on, front room lights on, two minivans in the driveway. Family home where people are home, right? The doorbell rang six times.

Similar situation for us, WT. This is our fifth year in this house, and previous years (most of which were weeknights) we always had 100 or more kids. We maybe had half of that last night. And it was a Friday with decent weather.

I think it's the whole ICE/fear of government thing (we live in a community with a large Latino population), and the proliferation of "trunk or treat" events. Local churches and businesses really pushing those.

 

[Neutral Corner]

I am imagining this illustrated by Shel Silverstein.

I still miss Uncle Shelby.

You ever hear his "Freakin' at the Freaker's Ball" album? Backed up by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show. It's kinda exactly what you think it would be, but it's also a lot of chaotic fun. Worth a listen if only for "I got Stoned and I Missed It".

 

[OscarMadison]

I still miss Uncle Shelby.

You ever hear his "Freakin' at the Freaker's Ball" album? Backed up by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show. It's kinda exactly what you think it would be, but it's also a lot of chaotic fun. Worth a listen if only for "I got Stoned and I Missed It".

Oh my gosh, that's great! Thanks!

I miss Uncle Shelby, too.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

Halloween seems to be less of a kids’ celebration and more of an adult thing anymore. Lots of elaborate decorations and costumes but trick or treating is dying out. It’s totally ass-backward.

 

[ChrisLong]

Over the past couple of years, I've learned a lot about Dia De Los Muertes. It is really a special occasion, a celebration of heartfelt memories of deceased loved ones. Halloween is just a lot of nonsense and screwing around.
I used to think they were both the same, because of all the skulls, bones, face paint and costumes. They definitely aren't.

 

[dixiehack]

I think a little of the mystery went out of Halloween when the end of DST got pushed back to November. It is clearly safer this way but it just doesn’t seem like it would be as fun to beg for chocolate in the broad daylight. Add in the fact that it is considered near criminal to let kids roam unsupervised and kicks keep getting harder to find.

A trend I have noticed among those who still go trick or treating is that their parents (read mom) takes them to the bougie side of town on the theory that better candy awaits. That’s a little sad too and I kind of don’t blame any well-to-do folks for once if they feel a little put off by the expectation they should finance sweet tooths from across the city.

 

[WriteThinking]

To answer the first question of the thread: I really like the not-too-common $100,000 bar. You can pretty much only find them in fun size anymore, but that's enough because the chocolate/caramel combination is so sweet. I also like the even-harder-to-find Rocky Road candy bars. Once in a while, you'll see them sold at stores' registers, but that's it.

And, for the first time ever, I had NO trick-or-treaters come to the door at my house. I couldn't believe it, even though there has been a decided decrease in kids doing that the last few years.

 

[Flip Wilson]

For the past several years, we've been the house to give out full-size candy bars (thanks to my wife, who is much nicer than I). This year, however, she was out of town so I turned off all the lights and holed up in the back of the house until I had to leave to go watch my son play drums in a punk rock show. I was driving out of my neighborhood about 8 p.m., and there were still some kids out walking from house to house.