It's 7:20 pm...

[HardyGirl]

Next time, let's get together and make it a fun evening, OK?

If only there were real transporters, Belgium and the U.S. wouldn't seem so far away.

[supes]

We went thru 275 pieces of candy. The weather kept changing so there would be kids.. then none then more. My 3yr old only lasted 2 blocks before she was tired.

[Hector]

I also got hardly any kids.

It's the sign of the times...the streets are less safe now...airborne diseases...kids that grow up quicker mentally and become more cynical...the computer age...and on...and on...and on.

When I was a kid...Halloween was magical...not because I was a kid...but because they were tons of kids...we had to literally fight our way to the doors to get some candy...the entire streets were full of kids...hundreds...not dime a dozen like today.

I think Halloween is slowly dying....sign of the times.

[thunderbolt]

Don't feel bad we get no TricknTreaters here. Our old neighborhood we got tons of them and had to break into other candy to take care of them.

[HardyGirl]

But such a dramatic change from last year to this year. I know there are more activities on Halloween than there used to be, so there are less kids on the streets, but last year, I had to refill the candy bowl, and it was raining then!

I guess the reason this means so much to me is that in my childhood, my mom wasn't much on Halloween, and even then people were putting razor blades in apples, dipping candy in rat poison and so on. So I really wasn't allowed to Trick or Treat except for the people in our building that I knew, (and that took all of 15 mins.). The first time I really went out on my own is when I was 13 and took a whole bunch of neighborhood kids here in Oakland. I never had so much fun on Halloween! And now since I have no kids, I just live vicariously through my students and the kids who come to my door. I guess that's done.

[saildog]

Yesterday, I ate lunch with my sister and niece. As we were entering the restaurant, I stopped to hold the door open for some older folks as they were exiting.

Now, I'm just one of those dudes that strangers like to speak to and I rather enjoy it myself.

One of the ladies was carrying a piece of cardboard. She stopped to show me that it had "H1N1" written on it and then she said, "I am putting this up to keep all them trick-or-treaters away.".

I laughed a little because I thought it was a joke, but I asked, "You're kidding, right?". No way could I imagine a little old lady not wanting little kids to drop by. Heck, old folks lived for that stuff when I was a kid.

"Nope, I'm dead serious. I can't stand Halloween."

Geeze.

[saildog]

Just a thought, though.

Hector mentioned airborne diseases in his post and now I posted my story.

I bet there were some legitimate fears from parents about H1N1 that probably kept a lot of kids home this year. Probably more than a few kids home sick, as well.

And, apparently, there are folks willing to use those fears to opt-out of passing out candy.

[Hector]

Yeah...I think so too.

[batmanmc]

i live on a busy street never get kids , i go to my sister in laws she gets a lot of kids. i would guess about 100. mike

[Earth 2 Chris]

I stopped back by my Uncle and Aunt's house. They usually have about 200-250 kids (my aunt counts them). They had 358! Plus I think they had a few more after that, because it wasn't quite 8 o'clock. Halloween is alive and well here in Cynthiana.

Chris

[Mikey]

I think Halloween is slowly dying....sign of the times.

To me it seems Halloween in general has been discarded by kids but has been embraced by adults.

I can't tell you how many adults i've talked to that are more crazy about Halloween then their own kids.

The kids seem to be going through the motions to keep their over-enthused parents happy.

I agree, Hec ... I think once this child generation grows up, Halloween will be almost all but gone.

In a way that wouldn't be such a bad thing because sometimes it seems almost little pathetic seeing the lengths some adults go when the Halloween season comes around, and the kids are going ho-hum.

[saildog]

To me it seems Halloween in general has been discarded by kids but has been embraced by adults.

I can't tell you how many adults i've talked to that are more crazy about Halloween then their own kids.

The kids seem to be going through the motions to keep their over-enthused parents happy.

I agree, Hec ... I think once this child generation grows up, Halloween will be almost all but gone.

In a way that wouldn't be such a bad thing because sometimes it seems almost little pathetic seeing the lengths some adults go when the Halloween season comes around, and the kids are going ho-hum.

I can't say I totally disagree with you in your assessment, but why do you think this is? I mean, if a kid can't get excited about Halloween and adults over-blow it, what's next...Christmas?

[Mikey]

I can't say I totally disagree with you in your assessment, but why do you think this is? I mean, if a kid can't get excited about Halloween and adults over-blow it, what's next...Christmas?

Christmas is different because it's a religious holiday ...
In the future Christmas will probably look a lot different, but it will still be around in some form as long as there are Christians.

Halloween on the other hand don't really have all that much deep roots in society.
Besides America, Canada, Mexico and The United Kingdom, Halloween goes largely unobserved in most parts of the world.
It's basically just another Western fad that happened to last longer then most fads.
The idea of Halloween itself has been radically changing for the past 50 years as well.
Today instead of spooks, most kid want to be Super Heroes, Darth Vader or a cartoon character etc ...
Most kids are not into horror nowadays - which really is changing Halloween bigtime.
I predict eventually Halloween will just slowly fade away.

[saildog]

Christmas is different because it's a religious holiday ...

Christmas is as Western a holiday as any. Not to be contentious, but don't lose sight of the fact that people in the Far East or Mid-East and any number of places don't think of it as a religious observance. If it is celebrated, even here in the West, it is every bit as commercial as Halloween, though it remains more popular.

Halloween has pagan roots, as does Christmas, but both were pulled into Christianity and both are now largely commercial. Don't forget, the modern incarnation of Christmas is attributed to the 19th Century Media. The celebration of Christmas was outlawed in Colonial America and Christmas wasn't fashionable until the Mid-1800's.

[fallensaviour]

We had twenty kids in total this year,a major decline since last year when we had eighty-five.
I spoke with my parents in Regina and they told me they only had fifteen kids in total and last year around sixty-five.

This could be due in part to the H1-psa announcements stating you should not send your kids out?

On another note my son went out dressed as classic a Vampire(dracula with cape nothing special) and people were excited to see him to the point of taking pictures.People kept saying you just don't see enough of the old monsters anymore?
A statement I could truly agree with everybody was a superhero or transformer.Very few dracs,frankies or wolfies in my area.