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31 October 2006
We just gave away 22 bags of candy in 3 hours. Plus 50 snack packs of peanuts. How about you?
I gave away about 40 chocolate body parts (the zombie toes were Krackle...mmm), about 60 gummi body parts, about 20 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and about 10 boxes of stick-on Halloween tattoos. We doubled and tripled up on some of the give-outs though, because we didn't really get that many kids this year. We also gave out bottled water - those tiny cute ones.
Still early here. One by one or a dozen at a time, the SUVs pull into our block, disgorge a couple of kids, sit waiting with the lights on and the engine running while the kids go to a few houses then get back in, are driven another half block...
-6 °C (22 °F) and a stiff north wind here this evening, so only 13 kids here, the lowest in the 15 Hallowe'ens I've been here (high was over 60 the first year). Good thing I bought stuff I like (here, have a Snickers).
Only had one knock so far -- two little twins dressed as skunks. People here generally go to the richer parts of town.
And what about the costumes? I was downtown today watching the kids go from shop to shop. I noticed a lot of cowboys, princesses, and lions. The most common thing, though, was wings. Costumes with wings. Almost everyone had wings.
Best costume I saw was a little guy dressed up as a fire hydrant. He had a stuffed dog sewn to his leg. His mom was dressed as a burning building. Their dog, a border collie, was dressed as a fireman. It was awesome.
Never had any treaters, but always prepared. Went to the neighbors to give candy away, but their front doorbell is broken, I think they only use the back door, and I felt it would be too presumptuous to go to the back. Anybody for kit-kats and butterfingers?
I've been too broke to buy candy. Live on a street with large lots and the houses are really seperated and well off the street, so probably there would be few if any trick or treaters anyway. Kept the lights turned off just in case.
We're on the third floor, so trick-or-treatin's not too practicle, alas... kids mostly go to the neighborhood businesses round here, in ol' Astoria... noticed a lot of wings here, too, pup... fairies, mostly. Lots of Spider Men, too.
My mom was the queen of the candy tray, all laid out in rows, by the front door. I'll have to call her later, see how she made out... fewer and fewer customers, I'm afraid. Especially since my cousins who lived in the area are all growd up.
One of my students said kids bang on their door demanding candy in her building. "They toilet paper your fire escape if you don't open up," she said. Things are rough in the Bronx.
Our building kids (about 20) and the next one came over. Only 3 1pound bags gone. I overbought as usual. Tomorrow, it is party time at the office with all the candy I am left.
A little dark, but here's a tiny sample of Mr. Pumpkinhead. Not as effective as last year's Mr. Table, I'm afraid, as only three kids dropped to their knees screaming this year.
We had about 60 kids come by, and we gave away all our Hershey, Kit Kat, Reece's and Milky Way bars by 10:00 p.m. About 100 candy bars, and about 5 pounds of Hershey's Kisses and Dark Chocolate Dove pieces, in about 3 hours. Lots of witches, couple of adorable little fairies (one of whom, at about 3 years of age, was too scared to say "Trick or Treat" herself, and tripped on wings as big as she was when backing away with big eyes from our candy bowl), and the usual assortment of pirates, goblins, and ghosts.
One older kid showed up, more or less as a ghost, with casts on both arms, and a couple of little kids in tow. I was congratulating him on how authentic his costume looked, when he said "These aren't part of my costume. I broke both my arms in a bike accident a month ago." He was taking his little sister and her friend around, and she was getting his candy in her bag. I felt pretty embarrassed, and sorry for him, and so he got double Hershey bars...
We went through 3 huge boxes of chocolate bars. (But my wife had gone through them earlier and taken out all the ones we love...peanut butter cups, snickers, twix.)
The thing that bothered me this year was the swarms of 13-14 year-old kids that would come. They'd come in huge groups of 8 to 10, and none would have costumes, or if they did it would be like an eye patch or a baseball jersey. WTF? I probably trick-or-treated way past my time, but at least I dressed up.
I didn't even try counting, we had a whole bunch of kids come through. Many dressed up really well and into the whole thing. A bunch that weren't dressed up at all and just wanted free candy which was lame.
But the lamest of all are the adults trick or treating with no kids in tow and no costumes, they just wanted some free candy. Its like, what you can't afford three bucks for some damned Krackle bars? Wait until tomorrow when they're 75% off.
But we had killer pumpkins out, I had some wicked good and scary music pumping from my iPod in the garage out through the grate and my smoke machine to spookify it all up. It was good!
And I took both my little boys out for a little trick or treating, which was a first and was good fun!
No kids, but tonight was league night, and I was on fire, bowling-wise. Took my team to a four-game winning streak. Now I have lots of candy to celebrate.
A little girls was braiiiinnnnzzz! Her mother sewed her a huge pink brain out of felt and pink and red embroidery thread. I wish I had taken a picture - it was the best costume. The mother was dressed as the doctor who operated on her.
What pisses me off more and more about Halloween is that no matter what the age of the kid, parents think they have to escort them. I understand the paranoia, but do five parents really need to walk around with a group of eight 10 year olds? And you know, they're not even partying or having fun or talking to each other...they're just...there. Come on. The kids come up for candy and the parents all lurk behind them, silent, in the dark, shining flashlights at you and staring at the candy. I freaking hate it. I told my husband tonight I don't want to give candy out anymore - the parents creep me out.
I helped my downstairs neighbour board up her smashed windows and narrowly avoided a beating while helping an old lady away from a gang of incredibly high scallies who were throwing beer cans at her. Fun night.
One year my alcoholic grandmother, her friend and my mother's stepfather were baby-sitting us and I only wanted to go to the houses of the people who I knew. When I wouldn't go up to one house, she went up and demanded candy from them--despite her friend's protests-- but I refused to take it from her.
Exactly zero at my house. (The house I live in was built in the 1800s, it's got grey siding, and it's up off the street with a stone retaining wall out front - and I completely understand how this comes off as creepy as heck to children.) When it became quite apparent that no trick or treaters were going to come to the door - I went over to my mom's house. She had exactly 4 trick or treaters. Last year she had something like 70. Unfortunately, mom's husband had already claimed all the snickers. (He'd made little stacks of what candy he liked in order of preference. haha.)
We had one exactly two trick-or-treaters. Bah. People today, trick-or-treating at the office or driving to "better" neighborhoods where they hand out hundred-dollar bills instead of Dots...
I haven't gotten trick or treaters since I moved to the city. They all go to major streets and hit up businesses for candy (except in Eamon's neighborhood, apparently). Kinda sucks, but it's cheaper than passing out tons of candy.
Yeah, our street is almost entirely single-family homes for five blocks, so people drive over from the surrounding neighborhoods to get themselves some of that sweet, sweet sugar. We give candy to anyone who shows, though: neighbor, stranger, no costume, too old, whatever. I freaking love Halloween.
My youngest was already out trick or treating with my neighbor and her son by the time I got home. I changed in to my costume (some sort of gypsy/fortune teller) just because I love Halloween. We had less than last year, too, but everyone was in costume and we went through about 5 bags of candy. One group of teens came as the cast of the Wizard of Oz-very cool. My kids were a Cyborg, a dead pirate, and a rock groupie. The other didn't go out until the last moment, and just grabbed a mask from one of the displays I'd put up.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
