8 responses to “Happy Halloween.”

1. 

   Melissa said on November 1, 2003 at 11:30 am

   Awwwww!

   Hope Kate has recovered from the Pumpkin Debacle.

   I don’t know if it’s just our neighborhood, but there seem to be fewer and fewer kids in Portland who actually go out trick-or-treating anymore. We’ve lived in this older residential section of town for almost 15 years, and it’s rare to have any callers on Halloween (even though I hear hordes of their noisy school buses cruising past the house every morning…)

   Last night we were visited by the same 4 girls we’ve seen every year: now they’re young teenagers, but they’re still going out with their pillowcases, roaming the neighborhood looking for candy. I admired their exotic 1950s prom dresses and showered them with Twix. But I think we’re seeing the end of the trick-or-treating era here, and it’s kind of sad.

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2. 

   deb said on November 1, 2003 at 3:17 pm

   the situation is much the same in milwaukee, and the number of trick-or-treaters seems to dwindle in direct proportion to the socioeconomic standing of the neighborhood. here in my ‘hood — solidly middle class — my 9-year-old scored approximately six pounds of candy, but it took him two hours to do it. (at our house, we had fewer than two dozen trick-or-treaters in three hours.) my 12-year-old went to a tonier part of town with his friend, whose father is an allergist. they toiled for 90 minutes and barely came home with enough loot to fill a sandwich bag. at most of the places they stopped, there was no one home — or, perhaps more accurately, no one answering the door.

   but cruise milwaukee’s poorer, grittier, ethnically diverse south side, and it looks just like the halloween you remember from your own childhood — kids are EVERYWHERE, scuffing through the leaves, hauling enormous buckets or pillowcases, with grown-ups camped out on their stoops and porches to enjoy the passing parade. i don’t know what all this means…except that suburban kids don’t seem to be having nearly as much fun.

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3. 

   Nance said on November 1, 2003 at 4:43 pm

   Interesting observations, both of you. Our neighborhood in Fort Wayne, while not exactly the ‘hood, is closer to the ‘hood than the one we’re in here, and there Halloween is nothing short of Mardi Gras for the under-12 set. If the weather is anywhere above 45 degrees, you sit outside with your bowl to save you the trouble of playing jack-in-the-box all night; the doorbell would literally ring constantly. I routinely buy 10 bags of candy or more, and have never made it past the first hour with that much. We get all the local kids plus bussed-in ones from other neighborhoods, who seem to find our street the ideal combination of income and proximity.

   Last night was much, much slower, although it was fairly steady. The up side was, everybody was in costume, including, amusingly enough, most of the parent escorts. (In the Fort, we get a fair portion of 12-year-olds and older who don’t bother with costumes of any sort.) The only sour note came when there was a knock at 8:30, half an hour past closing time, and it was a two kids of about 12 or so, crying because “some teenagers” had just stolen their bikes and “were shooting paintball guns at us.” I let them in and one called his dad. College-town thugs, I guess.

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4. 

   John Ritter said on November 1, 2003 at 7:29 pm

   Our neighborhood has “turned over” in the last three years so there were scores of little goblins and witches making the rounds last night. No mischief to be seen this morning as I went out for the Saturday bagel and cream cheese. In the past, Jack O’Laterns could often be found bleeding out in the streets, but all that was there today was a mangle marsupial who had run afoul of a car.

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5. 

   Linda said on November 1, 2003 at 9:49 pm

   They are SO CUTE!

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6. 

   alex said on November 2, 2003 at 9:42 am

   A slow Halloween out at my folks’ place in the country. Used to be we’d see carloads of nonresidents showing up, but not these days. More than likely they’re hitting all the new particleboard & putting green subdivisions, where the homes are much more densely packed and there are so many more of them.

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7. 

   Brian said on November 3, 2003 at 1:46 pm

   Other reasons for the demise of trick-or-treating:

   1. People tend to move more often than they did in days past — less of a “neighborly” feel.

   2. People are less trusting of strangers — after all, we are led to believe that there are millions of Elizabeth Smart kidnappings waiting to happen.

   3. A lot of people (I am in this category) are typically not home when a lot of the trick-or-treating occurs.

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8. 

   Beth said on November 3, 2003 at 1:58 pm

   I agree with the suburban kids having less fun…I grew up in the Fort with extremely paranoid parents in Aboite. I could barely scrape up enough to get a decent cavity going. But then again…we now live in a “less tony” part of Indianapolis (gunfire at New Year’s is the going thing) and bought tons of candy…not a single trick-or-treater. It broke my freakin’ heart…I’m consoling myself by devouring eight pounds of candy myself. Where is Fort Wayne is it that busy? It sounds wonderful!

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