Halloween 2019

We gotta tornado watch too!

There are groups of kiddos out there. Still waiting. I have decided (for the first time) to play some "scary" music via an auxiliary ... WAIT! ... 5 kiddos just came as I was writing this. DW and I are both wearing homemade costumes.

Anyway, we have decided to play XM "scary" music this year via an auxillary speaker. Lots of fun.

We're kidless, so maybe this is more fun for us than your typical burnt out parent.
 
I always go dark. I didn't like Halloween all that much even as a child. I also do not like sweet things. Could never understand all the "Hoo-HA!" about getting candy. I suppose it's a little like being red/green color blind.
 
We live out in the sticks, about 10 miles from the nearest town, and 1/4 mile from neighbors. In the 25 years of living here no kids have come to the door. We took our own kids, when they were young, back to the neighborhood I grew up in (and my parents still live) and got a full bag every time.
 
DW made me buy a couple bags of candy. It's our third year here and we have yet to see anyone. I was kinda concerned because DW wouldn't help with the candy. After doing the CICO math I'll only put on a pound if I eat both bags.[emoji39]
 
We live in a 55+ community of single family homes. No small kids here. We have not had a trick or treater since we have been here (4 years).
 
I live in a townhome community, and have handed out maybe 20 candy bars so far. No kids without parents. I remember Halloween in the baby boom era, with hundreds of kids running around the neighborhood without any parents in attendance. In fact, I broke a bone running into a ditch one Halloween. I bought 3 bags of candy because it was discounted at the grocery that way. I've eaten too many Hershey bars on my own already. I am wild to get rid of them tomorrow. Should I take them to the community senior center? I saw a suggestion to take them to the library. We don't have a community clubhouse.
 
Our neighborhood is Halloween Central in our town. We live on the coast where west of 101 there are a lot of second homes and vacation homes, but to the east, in our subdivision on the hill almost everyone is a full time resident and owner-occupant. So many people drive up here and loop the neighborhood.

We had 145 bags of treats to give out last year and we ran out before 7 PM. We have 188 this year. We'll see if that will last us. It's a little on the cool side, probably low 50s this evening, but dry.
 
Two parents with their two-year-old--they live right behind us and it's the baby's first trick-or-treating. Adorable, but he was so cold he could not stop shivering. That's probably it for the night. Bring on Thanksgiving!
 
When we moved here, I was astounded that we had “trick-or-treat night” the last Thursday before Halloween, or on Halloween. Always from 6-8 PM. We had at least 100 kids each year, now about 50.

For the first time in 20 years, it has been postponed until Saturday due to thunderstorms/tornado watch. It’s pouring right now with high winds.

A few years after we moved here, our porch was a haunted maze. We had black cloth walls, black cloth walks and scary stuff-a mechanical hand in a cage, DH dressed as a dementor, scary music, and me in a witch costume kindly handing out the candy.

This year, it will be a Jack-o-lantern and a couple of cool decorations.

The difference? A kid who was 10 years old with a neighborhood full of the same and a neighborhood in which the kids grew up and moved away.

I really like the defined day and time of kids ringing the doorbell. Makes it easy on parents and neighbors.
 
Pellice said:
I remember Halloween in the baby boom era, with hundreds of kids running around the neighborhood without any parents in attendance.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I remember those days back in the early 60's. Parents stayed home. Kids went out. Used a pillowcase because it held more. Literally 100's of kids on the streets.

Fast forward to the early 90's. DS was 9-10. Lots of kids in the area. Not 100's, but dozens. DS would go out with half a dozen buddies. But, we had intentionally moved to a neighborhood with lots of kids.

Now we live in a town-home community. Not officially over 55, but pretty much is. No trick or treater's for the last 9 years. So, tonight the light is off, and I have no candy that needs a QC inspection. :(
 
It rained where we live, but it let up at times, and the kids and parents seemed to manage just fine. I hope so, felt bad for the kids! We bought candy for 150-200 kids (3-4 pcs/ea), haven't passed out even half yet so we're giving it away in handfuls now...
 
So far about 50 kids have come by. Lots of cute costumes. Again this year we are giving out CapriSun juice boxes. I started giving them out about 8+ years ago and they really like having something to drink after eating candy all night. Parents like them because they are all fruit juice and pretty much tamper proof.


Cheers!
 
Looks like our final count is 39 kids for a period of 2 hours ending at 8:45pm EST.
Once a year is fine.
 
Like many others, the weather here resulted in less kids. Around 1/3 of last year's count. Rain stopped, but temps mid 30s and 30-40 mph winds. Maybe 12-14 kids total.
 
We ended up with an even 40 kids when the rain came. Not the least, not the most.

Our least number was about 20 years after the neighborhood started. Makes sense, no? Kids grow up and move out. Parents haven't moved yet.

Since then, the empty nesters have been moving out and young families come in. We're considered "affordable" compared to the hip downtown locations. I guess some of the millennials are not moving downtown after they discover an 800 sq. ft. condo price can net them 2200 sq. ft. just 7 miles away in those awful, terrible, suburbs.

Anyway, new kids, bigger numbers. The rain definitely put a lid on it though.
 
I've lived in this house for 20 years, and never had any kids show up on Halloween. The house is on a small 2-lane highway, with no sidewalks and no street lights, so it's no surprise.

It works for me, because I live alone and won't open the door for anyone I'm not expecting (especially after dark). The downside is that I have absolutely no valid excuse to buy bags of candy and perform the required "quality control" on them. :mad: :mad:
 
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High winds kept a lot of kids away tonight. The strange thing was that DH watched as several kids walked right past our house without stopping. The porch light was on. He thought that maybe they didn't want to bother walking around to the driveway because it's on the side of the house. I said, so what, they can walk across the front lawn. They've done that plenty of other years. It had been raining most of the day, so he thought the kids didn't want to get their feet wet. He said there weren't too many little kids, mostly older ones.

When I was a kid, high winds and wet grass wouldn't have stopped me from going to every house that had a light on.
 
Well, DH set up an inflatable Frankenstein and a ghost. We had our usual amount (about 40 kids). Kids got candy bars. Parents got dark chocolate candy bars.

Our big challenge was keeping the dog (12-pounder; thinks he's a Doberman) from nipping at people coming in the door. (Too cold for us to wait outside on lawn chairs, with cups of cocoa like most years.)
 
Tonight it is pouring rain and windy and cold. Even though I had no candy, I took a chance and left the lights on. There were no trick-or-treaters.

There are not many kids living in our neighborhood; most of our neighbors are older than we are.
 
Was at Costco so I bought a case of full sized double Reese's Peanut Butter Cups for $20 because I don't get many kids anymore. Pouring rain. Zero kids showed up so I went to DGF house to see my little buddys costume and go out with him. Still to rainy, he wouldn't go.
Stopped at Nieces house. She hosts a kids party for friends and family. She usually has 250- 300 kids trick or treat at her place. Had maybe 50. Handed out the candy to the kids at the party. (The adults all got in line too. Everyone likes peanut butter cups.)
 
Ues remember going out as a kid. What a time. Pillow case and we got so much candy out mom would get mad.

Now? Super sedate. Parents with young kids, and few on our street which just has 4 houses. Most kids grew up and the new kids on the block are not here yet in numbers.
 
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