Halloween 23

[olbriar]

Halloween was always my favorite holiday... especially when I was young. I never was a big candy eater but the adventure of being out after dark dressed had a particular calling. Walking the neighborhood with friends and finding the houses that had the candied apples or popcorn balls was a mission. I was always a bum wearing old ripped up jeans and one of my father's old flannel shits. A burnt cork rubbed on my face for makeup. It was good times.

I tried to make the holiday special for my children as well. I went with them when they were little and I dressed up too. When they were old enough to make it on their own, I still dressed up and handed out the candy at my house. It was a far more innocent time when I was a child but still a safe world for my children. As the years went on there were fewer children at my door. So few that the last decade or so I've thrown a Halloween party at the cabin and wasn't even home to hand out the goodies. This year I plan to be home. I'm guessing zero tricksters. I bought candy just in case and I hope I'm wrong about no little guys at my door.

Is Halloween a thing of the past at your corner of the world? Do you have any special plans for holiday? Any special Halloween memories you want to share.

 

[AugieTN]

Growing up we dress up in a costume and would go out and get candy door to door. We would come home and my mother would throw away all the homemade cookies, apples and any candy that wasn't sealed.

Nowadays we buy like 4 bags of candy and hand it out to all the kids.

 

[olbriar]

It's sad that I live in an old neighborhood filled with old farts like me. I don't know of a single child that lives on my block nowadays. When my children were little, every house had young families so we had a lot trick or treaters. They all grew up and the little guy populating dwindled to nothing. They even closed the grade school a few blocks away were all four of my children attended. I don't stand a chance to see any little guys.

 

[AugieTN]

We have a two bedroom townhouse, They are a good starter home for a young couple due to the price being cheaper than a stand alone home.. So we always have a ton of kids.

 

[Hadron]

Halloween isn't as big a deal in the UK, though it's bigger than it was ("trick or treating" didn't happen at all until I was in my 30s). Still nothing like in the US though: I was in NY at that time a few years back, and taking the subway from JFK to my hotel on Saturday evening as people were on their way to parties was fun, as was seeing all the kids walking to school in costumes a couple of days later.

 

[rootabaga]

Our neighborhood is a mix of families so we have some kids that come by. My wife can be pretty frugal (both in what we buy as well as how strictly it is doled out) so I would guess (remembering from my childhood) that our house has a reputation…and I’ll leave it at that.

I grew up in the era when you could safely be out past dark and didn’t have to X-ray candy or throw out homemade goodies. While I’m not crazy about approaching geezerhood, I’m glad I didn’t grow up in a day when such fears became reality.

 

[AugieTN]

I grew up in the era when you could safely be out past dark and didn’t have to X-ray candy or throw out homemade goodies. While I’m not crazy about approaching geezerhood, I’m glad I didn’t grow up in a day when such fears became reality.

Something I have noticed is a few parents following their kids around door to door, taking a video of my house and what I'm putting in their kids Halloween bag for safety I'm sure. It's sad that it was gotten to this point.

 

[olbriar]

The homemade goodies were the best! It was our mission to find the good stuff before they ran out.
In the fifties there was zero thought that there might anything menacing about the homemade goodies. It is so sad that we now live in such a wicked time. I wouldn't trust something hand crafted for little guys now.
When my youngest two were trick or treating, we visited a home that handed out nickels instead of candy. I thought it was a novel idea. If everyone handed out nickels it could amount to a tidy sum for a child. One nickel however did not impress my kids.
The first year I was out on my own, I shared an apartment with a best friend. It was a unit in a four-plex and the entire area consisted of countless four-plexes. We thought we would treat the treat seekers to home made popcorn balls. We likely made over 100 to hand out. We had zero trick or treaters. A man can only eat so many popcorn balls.

 

[Dannydet]

When I first moved into my neighborhood back in 91, it was full of children and many, many trick or treaters, so many we'd have to shut the lights off and not answer the door!
Then it steadily dwindled down thru the years, to a point that there's barely anyone out anymore...
Sadly, we haven't given out candy for at least 10 years now.

 

[Milo Williamson]

We used to have a lot of trick o-treaters when it was my brother-in-law's original house like in town for the longest time, it was the last five huge years with them, at his place in town,, before he moved away and they bought my cousin's house. The last few years we had our friend who missed out his birthday this time around, so we are going to celebrated it with him tomorrow. We were around my great friend's place and used to cook hot dogs on a stick and marshmellow s'mores and other goodies at the local church too. It was an amazing time for us to head out, yeah used to Trick or treat for unicef for one year, it was brutal. No one wanted to give out coins, instead they would give us candy more..

We did a hot dog roast the other day with him, good to see him, he is reaching I think in his 80s.

 

[PitCarver]

We're in a rural area though right near a couple of large subdivisions. Still, the only trick or treaters we get is from family.
This year I expect to only see our 3 granddaughters.

 

[mikedt]

Local supermarket has a few plastic jack-o-lanterns, apart from that I've seen nothing of Halloween.

 

[ocnbrze]

yeah like many here, i have lived on y cul de sac since the late 70's. we were one of the first to move into our newly built home. it started with families with kids.....so yeah Halloween was huge for me growing up. many of those families have moved on and out of the block. i think there is only 2 or 3 houses that are part of the original community when my house was built. the sad part is that many that moved in do not have many kids or are not really friendly and keep to themselves. i remember we used to have many block parties were we would all get together at the end of the cul de sac. there was always good food and drink and good times......not any more.

Halloween here on my block is going to be like any other day.

i will be working late tomorrow so not really going to be doing much tomorrow.

 

[Hadron]

Local supermarket has a few plastic jack-o-lanterns, apart from that I've seen nothing of Halloween.

There's halloween tat in the supermarkets here, and a lot of pumpkins which will be wasted because nobody here eats them (pumpkin pie isn't a thing in the UK, and anyway the pumpkin varieties bred to look the part are not the ones you'd choose for cooking). Actually last year I had a go at getting my chickens to carve a pumpkin: cut patches of the outer rind off and they'll peck away the flesh under them (the smaller bantams were better at this than the bigger girls, to my surprise). But I did it for amusement (mine and theirs) rather than to use the result as a decoration.

Funnily enough I came across 2 unrelated reminders in different media outlets yesterday that the European tradition is to carve a jack o lantern out of a turnip rather than a pumpkin. Smaller and more work (the flesh is harder), but probably looks creepier.

 

[Dannydet]

Thanks, Hadron.
Boy, how different things are being born and growing up in the United States compared to other countries.
I guess we're all in our "little bubbles" and don't get it unless we are exposed to them.

 

[mikedt]

Local supermarkets here have plenty of pumpkins, but these are most definitely for cooking, and NOT jack-o-lanterns, they're quite small. Pumpkin is sometimes used in jaozi and baozi, and hotpots.

The only times I've seen anyone doing anything Halloween was a private elementary school, as part of their international culture activities. Where they had an organised and controlled trick-or-treat activity with their parents and neighbours.

 

[olbriar]

Carving pumpkins was big time fun in my youth. I made certain that my children enjoyed the activity as well. It was always a part of the holiday fun just like coloring Easter eggs. I never had any thought of why.. just enjoyed the opportunity to be creative.

 

[BrickHouse]

The homemade goodies were the best! It was our mission to find the good stuff before they ran out.
In the fifties there was zero thought that there might anything menacing about the homemade goodies. It is so sad that we now live in such a wicked time. I wouldn't trust something hand crafted for little guys now.
When my youngest two were trick or treating, we visited a home that handed out nickels instead of candy. I thought it was a novel idea. If everyone handed out nickels it could amount to a tidy sum for a child. One nickel however did not impress my kids.
The first year I was out on my own, I shared an apartment with a best friend. It was a unit in a four-plex and the entire area consisted of countless four-plexes. We thought we would treat the treat seekers to home made popcorn balls. We likely made over 100 to hand out. We had zero trick or treaters. A man can only eat so many popcorn balls.

My parents recalled many a year when going door to door on Halloween was another means of raising charitable funds (or goods) for those without.

I remember having to check homemade good and fruits for problems.

 

[olbriar]

We had more trick or treaters than I would have guessed. We had 28 kids. There may be more later but I seriously doubt it being as it's a school night. It was refreshing to see the kids out. It's been a number of years since we were last home to hand out candy. Eleven kids came by.

 

[rootabaga]

Congrats on the kid count, @olbriar.
We had about a dozen.

Just curious whether you get in costume to hand out candy? I had on a shirt that looked vaguely western, so I tied on a predominately-orange bandana and donned a straw cowboy hat to greet the kids…a couple of whom weren’t in costume. I thought that was kind of unusual.

 

[olbriar]

Congrats on the kid count, @olbriar.
We had about a dozen.

Just curious whether you get in costume to hand out candy? I had on a shirt that looked vaguely western, so I tied on a predominately-orange bandana and donned a straw cowboy hat to greet the kids…a couple of whom weren’t in costume. I thought that was kind of unusual.

I always dressed for the occasion back in the day. I have a fetching good mask with hat that I wore along with a 1960s era fireman's coat. Last night my wife did the handing out duties while I was watching the World Series. She wore a witches hat and cape. Seemed fitting to me.

 

[AugieTN]

It was 35 degrees last night and we had between 30 - 35 trick or treaters which surprised me since it was cold.

 

[PitCarver]

Day after count... We had our oldest and youngest granddaughters last night as the middle one is off at vacationland with her other family.

Our 2 got enough candy to last for a couple years.

Or until next week after their mom gets into it.