The rise and fall of Halloween trick-or-treating

Chicago Tribune ^ | 10/31/2016 | Christopher Borelli

[Borges]

Is trick-or-treat over?

Is it a tradition in decline?

Or evolving?

This may sound like a horror story to contemporary parents and helicopter parents, or simply parents, but: When I was 8 years old I went trick-or-treating with a group of friends and no one else came along. We would walk up to strangers' homes. We would ask for candy. We would know some of the neighbors, though we would meet far more. We were 7, 8, 9, 10 years old. It was the late 1970s. Not a single parent tagged behind, or even stood on the sidewalk, waving. We waited until dark, then stayed out until about 8:30 p.m., maybe 9. Maybe there was a parent or two on the periphery, but I don't remember seeing a single chaperone in our neighborhood, which was working-class, more urban than suburban and not without its considerable ghouls.

[higgmeister]

We are stopping it this year for the first time.

Lights off and no candy.

[USMCPOP]

20-some years ago, some teenager used a homemade pipe bomb to blow up my above-ground pool out back. I was handing out candy up front about 8 p.m. Cops didn’t say much until I showed up the next day with fragments of the pipe and pipe cap, with unburned bits of extruded gunpowder attached. They got very interested then. (Gee, how did I know what it was? - I was a kid once:))

They caught the kid because he had loose lips. Did some time and I eventually received a restitution check for far more than I would have sold the pool for - hated the damned thing. But the shrapnel certainly could have killed or maimed any kids taking a shortcut through the back yard.

[Hyman Roth]

Beg O Ween

[goodnesswins]

well....if they have a costume on we won’t question...:>>

[SVTCobra03]

I refuse to participate in a Satanic celebration.

[oh8eleven]

carrying signs that the City Council hates children
And hate freedom too.

[bjorn14]

I had to give up Halloween at age 8 ‘cuz I was tall enough to be 12/13. I cannot count how many times I heard “aren’t you a little old? My sister would tell them my real age and who could not believe a cute little
blonde 4 yr. old girl.

A couple of kids disappeared in our city one year and then they switched to daylight TorT and then parents started to tag along. Then I got to go with my sibs and not face the ???s. They gave me a cut of their haul as the bodyguard.

[SoFloFreeper]

What we have done since about 2010:

Give away a Constitution with the candy.

These cost about 40 cents each at freedomfactor.org

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

VERY few kids in my neighborhood tonight. I don’t participate so I don’t get a count from year to year, but there weren’t even many out in the street tonight.