Halloween

[CNCAppsJames]

Well... it:s only 6:23pm here in Saratoga Springs, Utah and I've already had 2x the number of kids we had last year in the People's Republik of Kommieforniastan for the WHOLE night.

 It's a brisk 45° so I expect most of the kids innthe neighborhood will be out.

1st Halloween in the new neighborhood. So far so good. Neighbors are awesome.

[TSmcam]

I like how Halloween is (at least from our perspective), known as an American tradition.

It is starting to creep in down here, more so I guess driven by the big store chains so they generate more business. The average kid here doesn't even know what it is about.

We personally dont celebrate it. I just disconnect the doorbell LOL

[neurosis]

We personally dont celebrate it. I just disconnect the doorbell LOL

I don't celebrate it either.  I never get kids knocking at my door.  I've lived in this complex for 10 years and haven't had a single kid knock on my door the entire time.  It's super dark back here and very secluded and I keep the lights off.  I'm also in bed by 7pm so. 

[Brad St]

That's cool James and yes great neighbors make a great neighborhood.

I love Halloween and when our 3 boys were young we'd go to our in-laws neighborhood to walk them around. Everybody knew everyone and it was fun and safe. One year the wife really got into it and dressed up as an awesome witch costume....the kids were scared and asked her to never dress like that again =)

I grew up in the country and it used to be you got two groups of trick or treaters. The early bunch that came right around after supper and then the farm kids that had gotten done with milking and chores. The last group would come by and if your lights were off they'd sneak up the driveways and smash your pumpkins for not staying up for them. We figured they'd slacked off on not getting chores done early enough so they didn't deserve their treats =-P.

Nowadays I still live in the country and our closet neighbor is half mile away. There's not many "kids" around but I have one neighbor with two boys that are eager to stop by. they'd asked me even late this summer if I'd be having treats for them to which I said of course!

My wife gets upset each year as i'll buy two bags of candy and fill that bowl just so those little guys can stop and have their eyes pop out of their heads when I say "take all you want and then some for your folks" =)

[Jim at Gentex]

Some ppl around here go hog wild decorating their houses and yards for Halloween, so the kids know those houses are probably going to have the best treats. 

For the rest of us, the protocol is pretty much if you leave your porch light on, the neighborhood kids will stop at your house.

The trend here has also been taking the kids out earlier in the evening just for safety and better visibility.  I went to town a little after dark last night to pick up some food at Domino's and saw a few groups of kids here and there, but it seems to me that there weren't as many as in the past.

[CNCAppsJames]

I think we got our last visitor around 8:30pm. They started coming around 5:30-5:45. 

My 2nd son, his wife and their two kids live with us. They all went with my wife cruising around the neighborhood.  

[gcode]

We had no visitors nor did I see any kids on the streets... not a single one.
Only 2 houses on my cul-de-sac put up decorations.
It's a working class neighborhood and people are struggling to make car payments, rent/house payments
and food in Biden's broken economy and Newsome's green wonderland with it's $6/gallon gas and thousand dollar power bills.

[JParis]

This is the first year that I can remember where we didn't give out candy...

If your on FB with me, you know a chunk of what we're dealing with and there was just no desire this year...

I usually like sitting down on the front stoop and the "little" ones in their costumes....just wasn't feeling it this year.

[ghuns]

We live in BFE, no trick-or-treaters to be had.

A couple years ago at Halloween, we were visiting the daughter and SIL at USMC Base Quantico where they lived in on base housing. Their subdivision was for enlisted families.

They wanted to go out on a date night so me and the old lady said we'd take on the passing out candy duties. We had such a blast. I should have expected it, being in military housing, but the kids were sooooooooo damn well behaved and respectful. We had sooooo much candy to give away it was ridiculous, but not a one tried to take extra. When we offered, they'd look back to mom and/or dad to see if it was OK. Every kid old enough to speak left saying, thank you, sir/ma'am.

Gave me a tiny amount of hope for the future. Then I remembered those kids will make up less 1% of the population.

[Del.]

We live in BFE, no trick-or-treaters to be had.

A couple years ago at Halloween, we were visiting the daughter and SIL at USMC Base Quantico where they lived in on base housing. Their subdivision was for enlisted families.

They wanted to go out on a date night so me and the old lady said we'd take on the passing out candy duties. We had such a blast. I should have expected it, being in military housing, but the kids were sooooooooo damn well behaved and respectful. We had sooooo much candy to give away it was ridiculous, but not a one tried to take extra. When we offered, they'd look back to mom and/or dad to see if it was OK. Every kid old enough to speak left saying, thank you, sir/ma'am.

Gave me a tiny amount of hope for the future. Then I remembered those kids will make up less 1% of the population.

We usually have quite a few dependent on the weather. Same here with the politeness of the kids. Restores my faith.

[CNCAppsJames]

I'd say 90+% of the kids (even the older teens) were extremely polite. I was not necessarily shocked by that since I've found people here tend to lean HEAVILY on the polite side.

[gcode]

I'd say 90+% of the kids (even the older teens) were extremely polite. I was not necessarily shocked by that since I've found people here tend to lean HEAVILY on the polite side.

It's been a while since we did trick or treat in our neighborhood.
The local kids and their parents came around early and they were always polite.
Later in the evening packs of teenagers who didn't live in our neighborhood would turn up.
Some of them came around more than once.
Most were polite but some needed their ass beat.
I remember one pack bitching about the cheap candy we were handing out.

[Jim at Gentex]

Another thing people have been doing here is 'Trunk-or-Treat'.

My daughter's small town does that in the parking lot of their high school.
People just park their cars around the perimeter of the parking lot and sit in lawn chairs with candy and treats in the trunk of their cars, and the kids just walk from car to car instead of house to house. 

They usually do it early while it's still light, and it's definitely safer than the kids walking around the streets in the dark.

My daughter told me that the folks in her town really enjoy it as much as the kids do because many of them bring a thermos of coffee or hot chocolate and have a nice outdoor visit with their neighbors while handing out candy for the kids, so it's win / win.

Fortunately there are still some small towns like that with great community spirit, but sadly they are becoming more rare as time goes by.

[neurosis]

[MIL-TFP-41]

In years past I got easily 150 kids at my door. Since the china virus, maybe 1/2 that. Last night was probably around 75 or so. A little light on the turnout I thought, especially since I live 2 blocks from an elementary school. Lotta kids in the hood.