I was at a friend’s place playing Call of Cthulhu last night (halloween and horror-themed games just go together), except he forgot to turn off the porch light on his townhouse.
So about halfway through the game, a knock at the door, and the following conversation is overheard from the hallway.
“Trick or treat!”
“Umm…oh geez, I’m sorry I left the porch light on, hold on a second.” sound of running upstairsyelled from upstairs “Er, do you like mango?” running downstairs. “You’re welcome.”
The only candy he had in the place was some japanese mango-flavored gumdrops. Fortunately, the adorable little red riding hood who was our sole trick-or-treater loved mango and thought it was awesome (she was about maybe 6, red velvet cape and long dress and boots and a basket).
I miss living in a neighborhood where trick-or-treating happens.
As usual I decorated the house, though not as well as I could because I only had an hour to do it. Then I waited because I was told the little ones come around 5. No one showed up until 6 or so. Most of the little kids were good. I was dressed in a cape, white shirt, black pants and a mask of an old man. Some of the kids were a bit afraid to come up, which is fun since they do come up then run off.
So anyway, this ten or eleven year old kid comes up with no costume at all on. He’s scared to come up, but slowly he advances. I’m not moving so he’s waiting for me to scare him. He, doesn’t say a word, nothing. I move a bit waiting for him to say anything at all. He reaches in the bowl, grabs something, still doesn’t say anything. He then slinks off into the night. Well enjoy your golf ball punk, next time at least say something and I might have said something about not taking the golf ball, but it serves you right. Wonder what he thought about getting it too.
Okay, I’ve been reading through this thread, trying to decide whether Mayo or lissener was my hero… but you, elfbabe, are my hero.
Here’s my Halloween frustration story, in the spirit of the thread. I had a totally bitchin’ King Kong costume this year, and I was looking forward to competing in my workplace costume contest and showing it off. It turned out that they had to scuttle the contest over some employees declaring religious objections to Halloween! :mad:
Then my wife and I took a short walk through the neighborhood to visit my parents who live close by. We got to check out people’s costumes, and I got a few compliments on mine. One group of grade school girls angrily told me that I had no right to wear a scary costume because little kids might not like it. Uh, there’s this concept called “Halloween,” maybe you can look it up when you get home from celebrating Happy-Sunshine-Candy-Day. :rolleyes:
What a bunch of joy-haters there are here. You people even want to be the Lord High King of Candy Giving. Give it a fucking rest, they’re kids! Not every moment of reckless enjoyment of abundance is a direct fucking insult to your incredible generosity. Yeah, some kids are rude little snots, but what the fuck ever. Could you be any more petty and pathetic? WAAAAAH I DIDN’T RECEIVE APPROPRIATE ADORATION FROM A BUNCH OF PRETEENS! THOSE MOTHERFUCKERS! MUST TELL THE INTERNET!
If you seriously need to “vent” about this, get therapy. Take a pill. Volunteer at a soup kitchen. Read a book. Something, anything, to take you out of your own little skull for a minute. I know you must be short on time since righteous indignation and arrogant entitlement can really fill up the hours, but try getting a sense of humor and letting shit go a little. You’ll be amazed at how much better you feel.
My kids did good all evening until the very last house. They said Trick-or-treat almost every time. They said thank you every time and they never took more than one treat unless the homeowner insisted. Then came the last house. The people were giving out boxes of raisins. My daughter was not too bad, she just said, very nicely, “No thank You”. My son blurts out, “We don’t like raisins”. This was really embarrassing. We had to explain to them, just take the offered treat and say thank you anyway. I thought they already knew this.
What a bunch (well, one) of joy-haters there are here. You people even want to be the Lord High King of Complaining about Complaining about Candy Giving. Give it a fucking rest! Not every moment of minor venting is a direct fucking insult to your incredible ego. Yeah, some posters are rude little snots, but what the fuck ever. Could you be any more petty and pathetic? WAAAAAH I HAD TO READ A BUNCH OF PEOPLE COMPLAIN ABOUT A LACK OF POLITENESS! THOSE MOTHERFUCKERS! MUST TELL THE INTERNET!
If you seriously need to “vent” about this, get therapy. Take a pill. Volunteer at a soup kitchen. Read a book. Something, anything, to take you out of your own little skull for a minute. I know you must be short on time since righteous indignation and arrogant entitlement can really fill up the hours, but try getting a sense of humor and letting shit go a little. You’ll be amazed at how much better you feel.
I live in what seems to be like a “destination neighborhood” for trick-or-treaters from the inner city. I’d get groups of eight or ten at the door ar one time, very few wearing costumes. Some were absolutely terrified of my dogs. I felt kind of bad for them.
No problem with the kiddies. They were cute, polite, sometimes shy, all really wonderful. No rude, no greedy.
However I do have one small complaint. You may have noticed that pumpkins are heavy and cumbersome, making trash bags very heavy. Every year my procedure is the same, after the kids have stoppped coming, I put my indoor pumpkin outside to join the other two that sit near the door. Also I remove the glass votive holders from inside them, (it’s windy here!).
As a rule this disposal system works flawlessly. When I get up the next morning they are all magically disappeared. No smashing up pumpkins or heavy garbage bags required. True, one year, I found one smashed on the road at the end of the street but the squirrels really enjoyed it.
What should I find when I rose this morning? That’s right, all three pumpkins, still perfectly intact and exactly where I left them.
Kids today! Goddamn polite and respectful little bastards.
Get ON my lawn and steal those pumpkins, would ya? Sheesh.
We had a grand total of three T or Ters this year. I was disappointed, I figured since we’ve moved to this nice quiet residential area with little traffic there’d be kids out roaming the streets until midnight. Anybody want a giant bowl full of Dum-dums?
I took my daughter out and left hubby home on candy duty. Only every 5th or 6th house had its porch light on. A block or so away from home we ran into a couple of older girls mini-Marli knows slightly from school, so we hooked up with them. They all remembered to say “Trick or Treat!” and “Thank you!” and while my daughter and the larger of the other two girls were exclaiming excitedly over their bags full of candy, the smaller girl (who is all of 9 or 10 years old) shook her head and said mournfully, “Kids these days!”
I cracked up and asked her if she didn’t like candy.
In my neighborhood, the trick or treaters were mostly quite young, very cute, and (with prompting from the parents in the background), very polite. I was dressed up in minimal devil costume – horns and some white glow-in-the-dark face paint. Half of the kids didn’t notice, but every once in a while, one would be noticeably taken aback. Last year, one shy little kid asked, “Are those real?” and I assured him they were.
My only regret is not giving out more candy to each – I started out giving two fun-sized bars to each one, but the early rush was busy enough so I was worried I’d run out. Then, at around 7:30 or 8:00, they just stopped coming. Didn’t even get any of the usual half-costumed teens.
We had about thirty-odd kids, all but a couple pretty young, without the later round of teens which we’ve had in other years. They were pretty much all polite, saying Trick or Treat, Thank You, and even a lot of Happy Halloweens (although some of the younger ones had to be prompted). We didn’t do anything special this year except to put out a pumpkin.
I normally dress up to hand out the goodies, but my costume’s eyes needed replacing and I didn’t get around to it in time to buy the necessary LEDs. Just as well, as it works best with older kids and is really too frightening for the young ones who were coming last night. (It’s all black with an enveloping black cloak and a deep hood worn with a black full face mask with glowing red eyes. Worn standing in the shadows near the door with my head down to hide the eyes, it’s very effective when I raise my head so the glowing red eyes are suddenly visible. I’ve had groups of kids stand at the end of the driveway trying to dare someone to actually come up the walk. :D)
I missed Trick or Treat this year. Why? Because it was on THURSDAY.
Our record was a couple of years ago when we had over 700 moochers. We live on a busy street in a tiny village and boy howdy, does the candy ever fly out of here.
Our town is pretty big on Halloween. Lots of decorations and a high percentage of houses give out candy. The kids continue trick or treating well into high school. No one minds, as most of them wear costumes and are polite. You see a lot of adults on the streets with their kids - many of them carrying beverages and even trick or treating for an adult beverage at the homes of friends.
With my youngest a sophomore, this year was the first year none of my kids went out. Really changes things compared to back when I had to accompany my kids, and then when they were old enough to go out on their own!
What impressed me last night was how easy it was for the “bad element” to make a bad impression in so short a time.
Certainly the vast majority of kids were not terribly noticeable one way or another. Had at least some kind of costume on, said “trick or treat, thank you, happy halloween” and such.
A smaller percentage were noticeable because they were especially cute, exceptionally polite, their costiumes were particularly clever, they complimented our decorations, expressed appreciation at the candy we handed out, etc.
Then there were the kids who were able to convey a bad impression in a 30 second interaction. Ringing the bell repeatedly in the 5-10 seconds it took to get to the door (despite having seen me in the living room, generally getting up when I saw them come up the walk.) Peering in the windows during that time to see if or how quickly anyone was coming. Perfunctory costume - if any. Being a little too “in-your-face” when you open the door. No greeting or thank you.
But I try to remind myself that there will always be jerks in any situation, and that hopefully the jerks are in the minority and I should not let them detract from my enjoyment of the evening. And giving them a piece of candy rather than a piece of my mind is worth avoiding the risk of eggs or other vandalism.
