The Halloween Thread

[PHLBOS]

They called that mischief night in Delaware.  Knew several others that were big on that back in my teenage years.

Where I grew up (northeastern MA), mischief night occurred on the same night as Halloween.

When I was a kid, Halloween (and you guy know where I grew up) Halloween consisted of two things.

A deal where children (which is to say those 2 or 3 up to about 10 or 12) went to nearby homes of people they knew and got candy.  Depending on the number of kids you had, it ended up being close to a wash. 

A deal where teenage boys up hollers got out of school the next day by cutting trees across the roads.

The latter was considered mischief night; although most incidents in my area consisted of egging, shaving cream on car windows and or T.P.ing trees and bushes. 

That was it.  It was a one-day event.  Nobody decorated their house (other than the occasional pumpkin).  There were no pre-made Halloween decorations.  The candy showed up at the store maybe two weeks before.   If you were an adult, it was a non-event.

Same here.  Although there was one or two years I attended a Halloween party at a friend's/nieghbor's house the weekend before Halloween circa 1970s. 

Today it seems like Halloween has moved next to Christmas as some kind of month long event.  People decorate houses.  Adults have parties.  Parties are scheduled over the entire week so people can attend several.  They decorate the mall.  People ware costumes to work.  Kids are given presents at school (bags of candy, or, worse yet, bags of tofu based Soylent Yellow and pamphlets full pf bad of bad advice).  I don't think we are too many years from some pol lighting the National Pumpkin on the Mall.

I didn't start seeing homes go bonkers w/Halloween decorations until the 1990s; but you're right, I've seen some homes more decorated for Halloween than for Christmas.

[1995hoo]

This morning I saw a large pickup behind me on the road ("large" meaning bigger than an F-150) with a plastic jack-o-lantern face on the grille in a similar fashion to those silly wreaths or bows some people put on their cars at Christmas. Made me roll my eyes.

[Alps]

I've gotten 1-2 bell rings a year - most children in this complex are from India, where Halloween isn't a thing, but a couple of the more Americanized ones do come around. (There must be non-Indian children, though I have seen none to date.) This year, I'll be in New Zealand on the 31st. Australia is a land that's starting to figure out that Halloween is an excuse to party, but I get the strong feeling NZ will be just another Thursday.

[english si]

Australia is a land that's starting to figure out that Halloween is an excuse to party

They need one?

[kurumi]

My best costume was Hillary Clinton, a week before the 1992 election. Borrowed a skirt and sweater from a female friend of a similar size (who wasn't offended that I asked, which was nice). We hosted a party for about 30 people, median age probably about 24. What I should have expected but didn't was the number of times some drunk dude would grab my ass.

Afterward I returned the clothes back to friend #1 ("Abby") while friend #2 ("Brianna"), unaware of the Halloween thing, was looking on.

Me: Hey Abby, here's your clothes back, thanks!
Abby: No problem!
Brianna: wat

And, looking back, I never explained it to Brianna. Still friends, so I guess she came to terms with it. (And no I am not blawp, these were just friends)

[Takumi]

(And no I am not blawp, these were just friends)

[roadman]

I did trick-or-treating from the age of 6 to the age of 11, from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s.  We lived in an isolated neighborhood of about 150 to 175 houses, so you could do a full circuit on Halloween night in just about three hours.

The biggest change to trick-or treating I recall at the time was when candy manufacturers introduced the smaller "fun size" bars, which (as a kid) was a letdown from the full sized candy bars you used to get.

The other thing I liked about trick or treating was that Halloween was always the week after the change back to standard time, which meant it was already dark out by the time you went out trick-or-treating.  Just one more thing today's kids are missing out on.

[Henry]

From my childhood in Chicago, I would always dress up as one of the city's sporting icons. Some people I have gone as include Ryne Sandberg, Chris Chelios, Brian Urlacher, Toni Kukoc and, most recently, Jonathan Toews.

[getemngo]

I ALWAYS t or t up to age 11 or so, we usually lived on AF bases so it was pretty safe. Now I live waaay out in the stix so no one comes around which is ok with me. Bah humbug!
Do they still soap windows, tp trees and light bags of poo (pooing is cool) on fire then ring the doorbell? Not that I've ever done any of these, I heard about them from a friend of a friend Does Detroit still experience "hell night" Oct 30th?

It's Devil's Night, and sadly, yes.

There is, thankfully, Angels' Night now, and it's done wonders. There was a 51 percent decrease in Devil's Night arson just from 2010 to 2011. This sign starts showing up on abandoned buildings every October:



Creeps me out, and apparently creeps out some of the vandals too.

[getemngo]

I live in a rural area, so when I was a kid trick-or-treating was done by car. We only went to houses where people we knew well lived, and there were a few places where special treats always awaited (one former co-worker of my mother's who always fixed popcorn balls for a few select kids).

I'm living at the same place where I grew up. We're in the country, off a main state road in our county but with a long driveway off the road. We haven't had trick-or-treaters since we lived there, and my dad didn't have any for several years prior when he lived there before he went to a nursing home and then died. He always bought candy to give out just in case.

Neat to hear from someone else who grew up in a rural area. Same deal at my house - never had any trick-or-treaters come, not once, but my mom always bought candy just in case.

Most of the country people around me went into town to trick-or-treat, but my family went to a neighborhood surrounding a lake where we had relatives. I've never heard of anyone doing it completely by car. You'd drive to an area where the houses were spaced close together, and then get out and walk around for a couple hours.

I stopped after 6th grade or so. Many of my friends went trick-or-treating again once or twice in high school, but I couldn't be bothered to come up with new costume ideas. I will occasionally go to a haunted house or a party now, though. The parties I attend are lame because less than half the people dress up. I don't.

[hotdogPi]

Only 3 days left!

[jeffandnicole]

I do a large Halloween display out front.  I could have the lights flash to music that I transmit from my computer to a preset radio station people can listen to in their crs (such as what I and many others do for Christmas) but I haven't done that for several years now.  There's a few videos on the web of people that use the equipment for their Halloween displays as well.

Ironically, we often aren't home on Halloween to give out candy...so we have this great big display seemingly announcing we are here...and then the kids are completely confused when no one answers the door!

[Thing 342]

When I lived in suburban Milwaukee, there would be a few vanloads of children who obviously came from the inner city to go trick-or-treating there.

Same thing here. My local newspaper frequently lists my neighborhood as a place to trick-or-treat, so we get a bunch of people from both downtown and other neighborhoods.

[Molandfreak]

Maybe I'm just getting cynical, but I am not looking forward to tonight one bit. The dreary weather here might have something to do with it.

[Takumi]

Anyone have any plans tonight? Parties, etc.? Some friends and I are having a car meet...I'm going as Al Borland.

[formulanone]

Always wondered what folks in rural areas did, thanks for all that. There's always one parent who follows around their kids in a car within a residential suburban neighborhood...help.

I haven't dressed for a Halloween party in about 15 years, sometimes my wife gets stuck at school that night, so usually I just greet the kids with a bucket of candy, and there's always plenty leftover; although I'll pick though my favorites. Kids with no costumes get a single piece.

Anyone have any plans tonight? Parties, etc.? Some friends and I are having a car meet...I'm going as Al Borland.

I wonder if anyone ever went as Wilson, although I suppose you're really just a fence, two eyes, and a hat.

[Takumi]

In Home Improvement's heyday,  the late Earl Hindman, who played Wilson, gave interviews with a miniature fence around his face. I remember he was a guest (as a defense attorney, IIRC) on an episode of Law & Order that was made around the time Home Improvement was winding down (his face was visible, of course), and he was finally "unmasked" in the series finale.

[english si]

UK spending at Halloween: 2003 = 3.1m 2013 = 356m

No trick or treaters tonight chez moi.

Saw some premature Diwali (Sunday) / Bonfire Night (Tuesday) fireworks (good that they overlap, rather than a drawn out lots-of-fireworks season), but didn't see any trick-or-treating teenagers out tonight around 8

[kj3400]

I was going to walk my cousin, but then she found someone to walk with her, so that's out.

I haven't really done Halloween for a long time. Last time I prolly dressed up was in elementary school. I gave out candy one year, but otherwise I don't really do anything. Even now, I'm sitting in front of my computer as I've done every night this week.

[realjd]

No trick or treaters this year. I live in a quiet corner of my neighborhood and usually we get a few but most people the past few years have been going to neighborhoods known for good trick or treating (some even barricade the roads) or they go to a "trunk or treat" event. The big moral panic here lately hasn't been poisoned candy or razor blades but sex offenders molestering kids when they answer the door. Because that makes sense and totally happens all the time! Thus, no trick or treaters.

I have heard some fireworks. I'm going to assume it's redneck Brit expats who are starting Guy Fawks celebrations early. Because this is Palm Bay and any Brit expats here are going to be redneck.

[corco]

Yeah, it's just getting going here and I can tell it's going to be a busy night of door-answering. My neighbors warned me though so hopefully I bought enough candy.

[1995hoo]

We ran out of candy shortly after 8:00. First time that's happened. So we darkened the front of the house and ate dinner.

[tdindy88]

Here in Indianapolis, the streets are quiet and the lights are dark with no trick-or-treaters anywhere, that's because of this "epic" storm that we are experiencing, and by epic I mean a little windy with some rain (granted over an inch of rain,) but no thunder or lightning anywhere. Therefore, the trick-or-treating is moved to tomorrow night

[signalman]

My roommate was the door man since I was sleeping.  I have an odd sleep schedule because I work odd hours (I sleep from 7 pm-2 am and work from 4:30 am-1 pm)  Anyway, when I got up and was making coffee I checked the candy bowl and it appears to still mostly be full.  The amount of kids we get here varies greatly from year to year.  One year we'll get 2-3 kids, the next we'll get 40.  Apparently this was a year of only a couple.  He and I now have a lot of leftover candy to snack on.

[hotdogPi]

Total items:


CANDIES

3 Musketeers 7
Air Heads 1
Almond Joy 4
Butterfinger 4
Crunch 4

Dots 1
Dum-Dums 2
Heath 1

Hershey's 9

Kit Kat 12
Lemonheads 1
Lifesavers Gummies 2
M&Ms 11
Milk Duds 1
Milky Way 14
Mr. Goodbar 2

Nerds 3
Reese's 8

Skittles 5
Snickers 14
Starburst 2
Tootsie Pop 3
Tootsie Roll 6
Twix 19
Twizzlers 2

Welch's Fruit Snacks 1
Whoppers 8


BONUS ITEMS

Iced Animals 1

Smartfood 1
Cheetos 3