We see fewer and fewer Trick or Treaters every year. I think in another decade or so, it will be but a fond memory, but the Mrs. insists it will persist.
They didn’t even appear until after WWII. I think the parents don’t want to take a chance and send the little ones out to unknown places. My son was a wee sprout during the Tylenol scare in Chicago. Needless to say, that Halloween was almost non-existent. I think the kids have more fun and are more creative if they do parties and haunted houses. The door-to-door thing is on the way out!
I haven’t seen Girl Scouts selling cookies door-to-door since, I think, 1980.
Actually, one of the reasons I stopped buying candy was because each year I would see mothers trucking their kids in from all over and some of these “kids” were quite old. I am now a halloween scrooge.
Most of the kids in our town trick-or-treat in the indoor shopping mall. The merchants pass out candy and the kids have a warm, safe place for trick-or-treating.
Sad commentary on our society, if you ask me!
(what the hell is he talking about?)
My mother, who is now 84, has very clear memories of going trick-or-treating when she was a little kid, living in Queens, NY. That would be in the late 1920s. And in those days, the “trick” part actually meant something - before getting your treat, you were often expected to perform some kind of trick, like turning a cartwheel, doing a little dance step, or something else entertaining.