Another Halloween is over

It was a pretty quiet night on our street last night as far as trick or treaters were concerned. The first kids showed up at 6:45 and it was all pretty much over by 8pm. We had about 20 kids. Normally we get 40 - 60. And this year it was mostly smaller kids, the under 5 years old bracket. The last trick or treaters I got were 2 girls about 10 years old and there were a couple of boys a little earlier who were about 8 years old. It also appeared to me that we had some kids walk on past our house without coming in. We were in the living room last night, lights on, curtain open, so we could keep an eye on what was happening outside. Also our front door light was on. Nothing about our house would indicate we weren't home.

We handed out Halloween sized chocolate bars and a bag of chips to each kid. I got plenty of leftovers. Good news for me!

When I was a kid we got started trick or treating as soon as we ate dinner, which was always early on Halloween. We'd join up with our friends a couple of houses over around 5:30 and away we'd go. We'd go down one side of 182 Street and then up the other side. Then down the hill on 58th Avenue, by now crossing back and forth. No one wants to walk up that hill again. We'd continue on down 58th for a bit and then make our way over to 60th Avenue and head up home. We'd finish around 8 or 8:30. My pillowcase would be heavy by that time. I trick or treated up until 12 years old. The next year I was going to Cloverdale Junior High and by that time it wasn't cool to trick or treat because that was only something the little kids did.

Back then we trick or treated with a group of neighborhood kids, no adults in tow. Occasionally parents hired a babysitter, one of the teenagers living in the neighborhood, to accompany their kids. The lazy parents used their cars to transport their children trick or treating. Our parents stayed home to hand out the candies. Last night all the kids had their parents with them. That makes sense for the small kids, but even the older kids had parents waiting on the street.

I'm not sure if the trend now is to drive kids to newer subdivisions where the houses are 5 feet apart from each other and walk those neighborhoods. More houses can be covered in a shorter period of time. Also the news said parent's fears of H1N1 were keeping trick or treaters off the street.

I remember growing up in Cloverdale and we got a lot of homemade treats when we headed out on Halloween. The best score was the lady who made caramel apples. We also got popcorn balls and cookies. I'm afraid those homemade treats are a thing of the past. Too much paranoioa about possible tampering or poisoning.

Years ago when Halloween was over we could expect to see Christmas items hit the stores. Who are we kidding these days? I saw Christmas items in the stores at the end of August.