Ah, the ironies of 2020, when NOT wearing a mask for Halloween is scarier than wearing one.
It's a quintessential fall day here, and it's also the last day of DST today and a blue moon tonight. Enjoy the extra hour!
The Provincial Health Department here gave their OK for Halloween.....but with all protocols to be followed and they emphasized that a Scary Mask is not good enough and to wear another under!!
And I've seen some innovative ideas for candy delivery this year but we're just going to do it contactless: the treat bags are lined up on the deck and spaced a bit apart so the little goblins can easily grab one. We usually get 30 to 40 and they're good kids here so I'm not concerned about someone grabbing two!
It's 4c (40) and the sun set a half hour ago at 6:00pm ADT.
A few houses in my area have rigged up a chute from a second-floor window for candy delivery, perhaps also with light and sound effects.
Quote from: webny99 on October 31, 2020, 05:24:22 PM
It's a quintessential fall day here, and it's also the last day of DST today and a full moon tonight. Enjoy the extra hour!
Seen on Imgur: "Turning back the clocks and adding an hour to 2020 is like getting a bonus track on a Yoko Ono album."
I'm not sure what the turnout will be but we are prepared to give out candy tonight.
Decent turnout in St Louis County.
Woohoo, time to change the clocks. Light at 6:00, I will miss you dearly. :-( :-(
Quote from: ghYHZ on October 31, 2020, 05:36:04 PM
The Provincial Health Department here gave their OK for Halloween.....but with all protocols to be followed and they emphasized that a Scary Mask is not good enough and to wear another under!!
And I've seen some innovative ideas for candy delivery this year but we're just going to do it contactless: the treat bags are lined up on the deck and spaced a bit apart so the little goblins can easily grab one. We usually get 30 to 40 and they're good kids here so I'm not concerned about someone grabbing two!
It's 4c (40) and the sun set a half hour ago at 6:00pm ADT.
I would love to see their plan to enforce those rules. What are they gonna do, put people in the streets for four hours and make sure little kids are wearing two masks? In my opinion, an unenforcable rule may as well not be a rule at all. :-D
Seems we have security driving around tonight. I've never seen them this early on Halloween before. Haven't had a single knock on the door.
https://twitter.com/scotusplaces/status/1322684908104503297?s=21
Surprisingly, we had a busier than average trick or treating night. Had a firepit set up in the driveway and put out bags of candy on trays in front of us. Everyone was respectful and took 1 bag (although a number of them forget to say trick or treat or even acknowledged us). Near the end of the evening we walked across the street and talked to our neighbors. 2 young kids, with their parents right there (and probably encouraged them), took several bags off the trays. We also watched them go to other houses where lights were off banging on doors. Clearly they were not coached in the etiquette of how to trick or treat.
Quote from: thspfc on October 31, 2020, 09:07:13 PM
I would love to see their plan to enforce those rules. What are they gonna do, put people in the streets for four hours and make sure little kids are wearing two masks? In my opinion, an unenforcable rule may as well not be a rule at all. :-D
No they're not going to have people on the streets to enforce this!
Just the request that people do this seems to be enough here. General compliance is very good and that shows in the low numbers of cases here. Pop 2.5 million: 60 active Covid cases.
Update: I should have added we had around 25 kids. What we didn't get were the older ones later.
We had ten kids show up around 8 PM last night. They ended up with 80% of the candy we had, glad someone got it.
Halloween seemed kinda pointless this year given that we've spent most of the year wearing masks and eating junk food.
Due to greater-than-expected maintenance required on our car, my wife and I decided we couldn't afford new costumes for the kids this year. Instead, we went over to my parents' house (we usually do but then go trick-or-treating from there). I hid candy in the house and wrote scavenger hunt clues in poem form for the kids to follow. My mom devised Halloween-themed games for us to play. We ordered Chinese food to go (as is our usual tradition). I dressed in a tuxedo and handed candy out to the trick-or-treaters. Our kids sort of dressed up in old/hand-me-down costumes or dress-up clothes anyway.
I've been wanting for several years to stay home and hand out candy, but our kids aren't quite old enough to send out by themselves in a neighborhood without sidewalks. So I was happy for the change of plans.
As for COVID, it was probably responsible for low turnout. North of my parents' house, the trick-or-treating is always very good, but some years the kids don't make it down as far as us–but I suspect there were just fewer kids out in general due to COVID. The first trick-or-treaters were two young girls; they left their buckets on the porch and then backed away from the door, but came back up to the door when I held out the plate of candy. Then there was a pickup pulling a trailer full of trick-or-treaters, and we had about eight or ten of them from that group. A few more kids trickled in after that, but we probably only had fewer than 15 kids total all evening.
One kid dressed up as a coronavirus. Definitely the costume winner of the evening, although they all had decent costumes this year.
Quote from: jeffandnicole on October 31, 2020, 09:58:49 PM
(although a number of them forget to say trick or treat or even acknowledged us)
I was disappointed in myself after the first pair left the porch, because I had neglected to make them say 'trick or treat' first. For future trick-or-treaters, I just stood there at the door until they figured it out. One conversation went like this:
– Good evening ...
– Good evening.
– ... and Happy Halloween.
– Happy Halloween.
* awkward silence *
– Do you have something to say to me?
– Happy Halloween.
– Wrong.
– Good evening.
– Wrong.
– Trick-or-treat!
– Ah, yes! Here you go, please take two pieces each.
Was this thread just a secret way to discuss DST all along?
We had a higher turnout than any other year to our surprise (we have lived in our neighborhood since November 2014). We had a table in front of our house decorated with purple fairy lights with candy in plastic bags, glow wristbands, and glow necklaces, with me watching from the courtyard. We ran out of the candy bags (there were 30 of them) that we had to throw some extra candy scattered on the table. We were also left with only four glow wristbands and used over half of our necklaces (we bought 25 wristbands and 50 necklaces).
Quote from: JoePCool14 on November 02, 2020, 07:49:04 PM
Was this thread just a secret way to discuss DST all along?
Of course! :)
Quote from: Pink Jazz on November 02, 2020, 10:26:16 PM
We had a higher turnout than any other year to our surprise ...
Turnout was about average in our neighborhood, but I heard from friends and family of record-high turnout in nearby areas.
Quote from: webny99 on November 02, 2020, 10:38:30 PM
Turnout was about average in our neighborhood, but I heard from friends and family of record-high turnout in nearby areas.
Some factors that could have come into play were either that Halloween was on a Saturday, or it could also in addition be the new subdivision that opened in our neighborhood.
Maybe some of the nearby towns canceled their Halloween due to COVID, so kids in that town went to the adjacent towns that hadn't canceled it?
Halloween is not what is used to be. Since the rise of phediophilia, kids have to have parents go with them to trick or treat. When I was younger we used to go alone. Then you have many religious followers who now question the fact that many dress up as demons makes the holiday a Satanic ritual.
It used to be fun at one time, but never again will it be what it once was.
Quote from: roadman65 on November 03, 2020, 11:51:44 AM
It used to be fun at one time, but never again will it be what it once was.
I think everyone would probably say that - even kids that are trick-or-treating now will eventually - but it has more to do with you getting older than it becoming a vastly different event.
Quote from: 1 on November 03, 2020, 11:41:35 AM
Maybe some of the nearby towns canceled their Halloween due to COVID, so kids in that town went to the adjacent towns that hadn't canceled it?
As far as I know none of the nearby cities/towns cancelled Halloween here in the Phoenix area, not even Tempe (probably the most liberal city in the Phoenix area). Even if Tempe were to cancel I don't think they would drive all the way to Queen Creek to trick-or-treat; they would probably go to Mesa, Chandler, or Scottsdale.