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Had a few ghouls and superheroes drop by the house last night, but we have plenty of candy left over. Of course, the office will make short work of it.
[edited by: lawman at 9:48 pm (utc) on Nov. 1, 2006]
Kind of a dumb idea anyway, sending your kids to strangers' houses for candy!
Also, thanks to the History Channel I can tell you that it's actually not a bad idea to send kids out for candy. Back in the 50's it was more popular for kids to go out and cause trouble, the candy thing was started as a way to bribe them to go to community parties instead and radio stations often had a drawing for prizes that kids had to be at home to win. It was all a scam to keep kids from doing things like toilet papering someone's front lawn.
I've been anticipating Hallowe'en for months. See, we recently moved into a new house, where formerly we lived in a rented apartment. So this was the first year we've been able to give out the candy.
So it was decided: while my spouse takes the kidlet out with her friends, I would guard the fort and spoon out the goods to the neighbourhood kids.
I started decorating in September, transforming our full-sized garage into a spooky haunted garage. I got a smoke machine. put up layers of spooky streamers. Lights. Carved pumpkins. Then last night I rushed home and got everything set up: fan blowing to make the spooky streamers billow suggestively? check. portable stereo playing creepy sound effects? check. paper tea-light lanterns (100 of them) all the way down the driveway, beckoning to children to come hither IF THEY DARE? check. little notepad to keep a tally of how many treats were handed out? check.
On the way home I even picked up an extra box of treats... just in case. Wouldn't want to run out; my house might get egged.
Well after all that effort, I found that I was the only one on our entire street (and it's a long street) to make any effort at all. There was one other house passing out candy. One! Both neighbours on either sides of us were home I KNOW BECAUSE I SAW THEM but they all had their lights out, pretending not to be there. John -- I know you were home I saw you go in after walking your dog!
So there's me shivering in the cold garage with spooky sound effects, gushing the fog machine out into the street, sitting alone. The Mrs. and kidlet were out in her friend's neighbourhood (candy central) and as I sat playing ka-glom on the blackberry wondering how much of a git I am and waiting for the next child to arrive, I just wanted to get drunk.
And in my stupid little notebook, not counting the neighbours who stopped in uncostumed to see if they needed to call the fire department (have they never seen a fog machine?), how many actual genuine trick-or-treaters arrived at my haunted garage?
9.
That's an average of three children per hour.
I figured it out. For each child that came and enjoyed the bounty of my Hallowe'en generosity, I spent about 1.5 hours in preparation.
Next year I'm leaving a bucket of snickers on the sidewalk with a sign ("help yourself") and I'm going to the bar.
the neighbours who stopped in uncostumed to see if they needed to call the fire department
Next year you can go to the bar, or you can add another element to your well laid plans - include the neighbors. Post a few flyers around the area or paper some windshields on nearby streets where you think the kids live. Maybe a memo to the PTA, the Scout troops, the school bulletin board or paper, the branch library. You could probably even find all the children in your area on MySpace and send them bulletins about your haunted garage. Not saying I would recommend that, just brainstorming ideas
Most of the kids were at organized functions, designed to keep them off the streets. I saw a grand total of three costumed individuals, and two of them were looking for any place with a party. All dressed up and no place to go. Nice costumes too, so I snapped a few pictures.
Halloween is a ghost of itself.
bucket of snickers on the sidewalk with a sign ("help yourself")
