Trick or Treat---Bahhhhhh Humbug I say!
When we were kids 50+ years ago, Halloween meant visiting our family and close neighbors for home-made candy, caramel apples, popcorn balls, and sometimes full sized candy bars. We never went to over 6-8 houses and never to somebody's house we didn't know. Our costumes rarely included any bought items like masks. It was a simpler time for sure.
Today my wife and I live in one of the nicer, established subdivisions in our town. Our street is a long hill that joins a couple of other subdivisions at the top of the hill. When we built the house, our kids were already junior high and older so they didn't get into trick-or-treat other than handing out candy at the door. They are both all grown up and have their own homes close to ours (for that we are thankful). Trick-or-treat has gone from having a few dozen kids come by to having as many as 400 (friends around the corner have had as many as 500) little moochers from who the heck knows where. They show up on golf carts (2 blocks to city golf course),ATV/UTVs pulling trailers or carts, SUVs with what look like clown cars so packed full that they can't shut the doors. Getting up our street is futile for about 4 hours. An emergency like a fire would render response impossible. It seems like kids are being bussed from who knows where into the neighborhood
We got so fed up with all the crap, especially groups of up to a dozen teenagers in street clothes beating the door down to mooch, that my wife and I have made Halloween our once on a blue-moon date night with the whole deal---nice meal, shopping and maybe even a movie even though I hate Hollywierd and everything about it.
The 1st year we did this about 3-4 years ago, one of our neighbors called and asked my wife "Where the H*** are you guys?" My wife told her we were enjoying a wonderful supper at Olive Garden in Paducah, about 30 miles from our home. She then told my wife that she and her husband wanted to go wherever we were going the next Halloween (that was their 1st year living next to us).
We have had folks tell us we were the smart ones in the area while others think it is terrible for us to have our lights turned off and be gone until at least 10PM. We consider ourselves to be very giving by nature and would be willing to help somebody in need. We just don't see feeding the sugar addiction of 400 kids we have no idea who or where they came from is our civic duty as good people.
Anybody else have similar experiences?