did you ever trick or treat? I remember carving a pumpkin and putting in the window, dressing up in costume, and trick or treating with my brothers, cousins and school friends when I was a kid, and giving away candy at the front door. Before I moved to California I remember reading about an incident in which someone had put tiny pieces of broken glass into the Halloween candy. After that, my parents forbade trick or treating. By then I was too old for it anyhow. But trick or treaters had definitely thinned out by 1980. Every Halloween there were reports of crimes committed against kids -- poisonings, broken glass in the candy, etc. By the mid-1980s trick or treating had tapered off, to be replaced by Halloween parties. I assume that most people on this board -- except you, Joan -- were born after 1990 and probably never went trick or treating in the first place?
Here in San Diego the trick-or-treating tradition has never waned. Everyone I grew up with did it every year until they were too old to get away with it (early teens unless you were really short and could pass for younger), and I take my daughter (now six years old) trick-or-treating every year. Not only do most households hand out candy, but we can always count on an army of costumed munchkins knocking at our door as well.
So never fear: trick-or-treating is alive and well, and although I don't trick-or-treat myself anymore, I'm counting on my daughter getting a huge haul again this year so I can raid her plastic pumpkin bucket!
P.S. If anyone in our neighborhood is reading this, please stock up on bite-size Butterfingers.
Yet another small-scale event on the calendar which has gone in the last 25 years from a little bit of fun to a corporate money-making monstrosity. The Simpsons said it best with "Love Day".
Growing up in San Jose, Ca., my friends Sean, Moe (nickname) and I went out as bums (easy costume). This was back in the days when neighborhoods were safe and parents didn't have to go out with the kids. Our neighbors gave out FULL SIZE candy bars. Not the wimpy "fun size" you see today. When it was over, we would come home and start trading with each other for our favorite treats. I liked the Payday, Snickers and Marathon bars. Hated black licorice and boxes of Good 'n Plenty (liked Good 'n Fruity, though). Of course, our parents would extract their cut of the bounty as payment for allowing us to roam free, but that was expected. We used pillow cases as our goody bags. Fond memories.
Used to do Duck Apple as a kid (trying to bite apples in a water bowl and getting sweets if successful). Have NO IDEA when it transformed into Trick or Treat and don't really care about it either.
The whole thing has died off since the 80's. I thought it was fun until I was 9 or so. I really think it's for the very young. I just don't get older kids trick'r treating. I really don't see many in the neighborhood going door to door anymore, as most go to safer organized events at schools, churches and shopping malls.
Used to do Duck Apple as a kid (trying to bite apples in a water bowl and getting sweets if successful). Have NO IDEA when it transformed into Trick or Treat and don't really care about it either.
I remember latching my teeth onto the apple's stem. It was the easiest way to get the apple. The lady at the house was so tickled about it she ran inside to get her camera so she could take a picture.
My parents got wise to that one sol. All the stems were pulled off before immersion, so a wet face and splashing was unavoidable, but stacks of fun with my little sister. If I ever get waterboarded, I'm prepared!!
Though you could get attacked by Bears or Mountain Lions, I still get a very small handful of kids who venture forth to my door on Halloween. And I know that I will have a lot of candy left over so I get the kind that I won't mind snacking on through December. I recall my first and only Halloween in Edinburgh in 1989. I had completely forgotten that it was Halloween as it was not celebrated, discussed on t.v., no bags of candy for sale at Marks & Spencer's etc. It had gone off my radar that year. Then on Halloween night, my friend and I walked past a used bookstore off The High Street and displayed out front was everything I'd forgotten about: Pumpkins (where did they get them?), scattered straw, a Scarecrow, and assorted Witches as window dressings. One of the owners of the shop was an American, as I found out. I thanked her for her efforts and she told me that people had asked her what the decorations signified. That was when I felt homesick for the San Francisco-Halloween that I was now missing. (I'm sure they still won't allow public nudity in Edinburgh though.)
I was born in the mid 1980s and trick or treating was definitely a big thing when I was a kid. I went until the end of elementary school.
It's still a thing, although it was pretty sparse in my rental complex over the last three years. I moved into a house in a nice neighborhood last year, so I'm excited to hopefully get a lot of trick or treaters.
I think the majority of candy poisonings/razor bladings/glass/etc are urban legends, or things that the news puts out there as the next big thing to be afraid of, until they find something else. At any rate, all Halloween candy comes well prewrapped now, so tampering would be pretty evident.
I have a question. Richard wrote, "I assume most people on this board except you JOAN were born after 1990...." Richard, tell me how to take this. I have no benefit icons here nor can I hear your tone, so is this just gentle teasing? More? (I thinks most of the people on the board were born before 1990 so I'm a bit confused.)
When did Halloween become a month-long celebration? What a stupid question.
. . .
Joan Hue: I have a question. Richard wrote, "I assume most people on this board except you JOAN were born after 1990...." Richard, tell me how to take this. I have no benefit icons here nor can I hear your tone, so is this just gentle teasing? More? (I thinks most of the people on the board were born before 1990 so I'm a bit confused.)
A twenty-something would not have asked me that question. I think most people here are younger than than the man who made the initial post. For lack of a better term, gentle teasing, yes, that your posts reflect someone who is wiser and nicer plus your impeccable taste in rousing western scores.
The last year I can remember even trying to go Trick-or-Treating was...1988? '89? I was fifteen in '89, and all I remember is half-heartedly going around to a couple of houses sans costume. I do have fond memories of it at a younger age, though.
Thank you, Richard, for the compliment. I did think you were teasing me. There are quite a few posters here at FSM who are around my age, but I’ll spare them by not naming them.
And I do love rousing western scores.
As a kid (when dinosaurs roamed the earth), I could safely Trick or Treat in my neighborhood. I would get full-sized candy bars. I always loved the home-made caramel apples and popcorn balls. My parents never checked them for needles or razor blades, and then things changed.
When my daughters were small, we went with them from house to house and thoroughly checked their candy baskets. There is a kind of sadness to this evolution.
About 13 years ago, we built our current house in a nice neighborhood surrounding a golf course. It is not a ritzy gated community at all, but it is nice. When I drove around my neighborhood that first year, I figured we had around a 100 kids. Because they may have brought friends, we bought 200 treats. We were wiped out in an hour. Because we have some poverty areas in surrounding cities, people from all over were coming to our neighborhood. One time, a motor home pulled up in front, and 40 kids hit our front door. They were from a small town 40 miles away. We now buy almost 500 treats. I don’t begrudge parents bringing their kids to a safe neighborhood; that is okay. I have had a few kids say, “Gee, we thought you’d hand out fancier treats.” That is irritating, and I don’t like all the high school kids showing up trick or treating, but we sally forth. Around here, trick or treating is alive and well. We do have a local mall and downtown areas that hand out treats, but people still flock to neighborhoods, and I’m glad to see most children accompanied by their parents.