From the Usual Source...
Speakin' o' that... I'm wonderin' if I'll get any trick or treaters this year. I had nary a one in the eight Halloweens I spent in Beautiful La Hacienda Trailer Park. Zero. Zip. None.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Heh
Speakin' o' that... I'm wonderin' if I'll get any trick or treaters this year. I had nary a one in the eight Halloweens I spent in Beautiful La Hacienda Trailer Park. Zero. Zip. None.
When we first moved into our neighborhood... sometime in the last century... we would get as many as 200 kids, sometimes more. There's hardly be time to close the front door. Now if there are 80 it's a lot and some of them would easily fit in the cartoon (no costume, just a big swag bag).
ReplyDeleteWe get very few in my neighborhood. The rowdy college kids seem to scare the kids away. So I only get about 2 per year - not enough to justify buying a bag of candy. So I give 'em a little packet of Taco Bell hot sauce. As long as they feel something land in the bottom of their swag bag, they walk away happy.
ReplyDeletehee w/v: skingiar
rhymes with stingier, which is me to a T.
We used to get a lot more kids knocking on the door. 200 was about right.
ReplyDeleteThen a number of houses sold, kids grew up or moved away, and it went down to about 40 or 50. Most were from kids bringing in friends to raid our neighborhood.
The weather here makes it interesting too. We have had probably 8 of the last 12 years with snow or freezing rain. That puts a damper on the trick or treating.
10 years ago we had a steady stream of kids on Halloween. The last four or five years, we've had maybe three or four rings on the bell (total).
ReplyDeleteI've learned to buy the kind of candy that I really like, because I'm gonna do most of the eating.
Heh! WV: bored
We always get two or three kids, and that's it. Halloween is a big thing in most of the neighboring towns to ours, but Watertown - and specifically our street - are dead (excuse the Halloweeny sort of pun.)
ReplyDelete"I had nary a one.."
ReplyDeleteLOL, Buck, probably because of the cranky creature that dwelled therein. :)
My BEST Halloween EVER: Fall, '71, having just returned to civilian life and in grad school at Univ of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, La., and staying with a frat. brother (who was in the PhD Computer Sci program) and his wife until I found a suitable apt and my car shipped back from UK, My friend, who was a 6'4" ex-basketball player rented a full size complete Gorilla suit, while I purchased a mask which had 1/2 the face completely normal and the other half as if dissolved by acid. F.A would hide in the garage and when the kids (in our neighborhood it was mostly really small, young kids--no teenagers, etc.) came to the door I would ans, but only opening it enough to let them see the "good" side (the rt one) When the bravely made their demands/threats I would open the door all the way and growling "Oh reaaallly!" and they would scream at the sight and run to escape. But before they could get the length of the side walk I would take the mask off, and yell to the kids: "Hey guys, come on back, it was just a joke! See? Come get your candy!" They would then hesitantly come back and I would fill their sacks with candy. Meanwhile F.A. was circling around behind them from the garage unnoticed. When they turned to leave, they were confronted with a 6'4" Gorilla with raised arms on the attack making hideous growling sounds. You should have seen it! They would scream, drop their sacks on the spot and scatter like quail thru the bushes & hedges in EVERY direction across and down the street and FAST disappear into the night! LOL!! Finally, the cops came by (due to complaint by parents) and told us to knock it off because the kids were blindly bolting across the street in stark terror w.o. looking and they were afraid they would get run over (although it was a little-traveled residential side-street) But it was sure fun while it lasted! We got to scare them TWICE--once when acid-man opened the door and then when the Gorilla attacked. (much evil chorteling-Bwaahahaha!!!!)
I find it interesting that all y'all report the same phenomenon: trick or treaters are down. I really wonder why that is?
ReplyDeleteVirgil: There's always at least ONE of you in the neighborhood, ain't there? I remember several geezers from my trick or treating days that did the same sorts o' thangs. Good story!
Buck - fear for the kids, unfortunately, is the likely reason why the T&Ts are down.
ReplyDeleteThe houses in our neighborhood are spaced out quite a bit (everyone builds at least one acre) so it's hard for the littler kids to do all that walking. At the high point of our years when we answered the door, I'd say we got 40 kids.
We don't open the door anymore; we leave the house dark and go out to eat.
Get off my lawn.