In the 60's that is, we would crash the neighborhoods on Halloween and every house would give you a candy bar. Some were big Baby Ruth or Snickers or Mars bars. Almost everybody gave you something good. Everybody had their lights on and you walked up into the porch. Sometimes you didn't even have to say, "Trick or Treat". They just put the goods in the bag. I remember having to go back to the house and unload the take because it was so heavy. Then we would go out and fill up at least another half of a grocery bag. We did it all on our own as kids with ages that numbered in single digits. We didn't have parental escorts.

Nowadays a lOT of people have their doors closed and lights off. The few who do go "Trick or Treating" have parents as escorts with a keen eye. The "stash" is nothing compared to how it was in the "good ole days".

Somebody add some more or I'm just going to keep adding them.

When I was little there was this house in my city owned by a guy who did animatronics for the movies or something. I think he designed toys too. Anyway, every Halloween he would create an entire animatronic stage show in front of his house. He built all of them by hand. They did little vignettes, and were computer synchronized with voice overs and music, etc. Cars would line up down the block to get a glimpse. All the kids would stand outside and watch it all night. It was really a sight to see. One year he did the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (this was around when the live action films came out in the 80s), and all 4 of them were on stage and played songs and did little acts (think back to Showbiz Pizza/Chuck E Cheese stage shows, thats what it was like). It was amazing the amount of work that went into it, for no charge.

Eventually, he started an annual haunted house in town and again built all the animatronics by hand. He would start a year in advance to get the props done. The finale involved everyone standing in a room that looked like a bar, and you could hear the sound of a truck get louder and louder. Eventually, it was blaring in the room and an entire animatronic semi truck cab driven by a skeleton crashed through the wall behind the bar about 10 feet in front of you. If you never saw it before or werent expecting it, it gave you a hell of a jolt. I really miss those days. The whole thing was a labor of love for the guy.
Heres a site dedicated to it. You really dont get an idea of the scope from those pictures. The church building was well over 100 years old. It still gives me the creeps when I walk past it at night

Well maybe I still live in the good ol' days over here because everyone was giving out candy in my neighborhood. Went through over 1000 pieces of candy in 2 hours, ran out of candy, and still there were more kids going around so we had to close up shop unless they wanted canned goods. Parents escorted their younger kids, but also enjoyed looking at everyones decorations and talking to the neighbors. For our neighborhood this is always a big event - especially since Christmas has been ruined for us by some neighborhood grinch who complained about the neighborhoods fund raising on Christmas Eve for Make-A-Wish foudation and the traffic looking at the lights and luminaria candles.

When I was trick or treating we lived on military bases so we never had parents with us. The only parents you saw had the wee little one's with them.
Almost every house on base was open and had loads of candy. I could fill up 3 pillow cases worth of candy in one night if I ran fast enough from door to door.

Here on the Island trick or treating is not feasible for most areas of the Island because of steep hills driveways etc..
Our Condominum complex sponsored a Halloween night for the local Island kids since it is one of the few places kids can go door to door. We had a nice cocktail party for the adults and went through a ton of candy for the trick or treaters.

moloch_322 Wrote:Well maybe I still live in the good ol' days over here because everyone was giving out candy in my neighborhood. Went through over 1000 pieces of candy in 2 hours, ran out of candy, and still there were more kids going around

Wow. I went w/ my 3 year old. Our next door neighbors caught up to us, so that made a group of 5 kids. Besides that we saw two different groups of 2 and a group of 3. That was in 2 neighborhoods.

Our neighborhood never gets many kids, b/c it dead ends. I think my neighbors gave up b/c at least half (of 18 townhomes) were not home.

The other neighborhood is single family homes...they were at home, but hardly any kids.

Don't know what was up, we're typical suburbia, sidewalks &pretty safe streets.

But, I'm w/ Endzone. I remember being out for hours, covering alot of blocks, getting candy. The only bad thing was so many people would pass out Smarties. I'm a chocolate guy.

DrTorch Wrote:The only bad thing was so many people would pass out Smarties. I'm a chocolate guy.

Could've been worse! Remember Charlie Brown?



"I got a rock!"

I live in a pretty good sized apartment complex, and only had one group of about 5 kids come by....

Lots of our neighbors had their light on/had pumpkins in front, but we had a grand total of 5 kids. We have more kids in the area than that. I think a lot of people just go to the suburbs for candy.

Endzone2 Wrote:In the 60's that is, we would crash the neighborhoods on Halloween and every house would give you a candy bar. Some were big Baby Ruth or Snickers or Mars bars. Almost everybody gave you something good. Everybody had their lights on and you walked up into the porch. Sometimes you didn't even have to say, "Trick or Treat". They just put the goods in the bag. I remember having to go back to the house and unload the take because it was so heavy. Then we would go out and fill up at least another half of a grocery bag. We did it all on our own as kids with ages that numbered in single digits. We didn't have parental escorts.

Nowadays a lOT of people have their doors closed and lights off. The few who do go "Trick or Treating" have parents as escorts with a keen eye. The "stash" is nothing compared to how it was in the "good ole days".

Somebody add some more or I'm just going to keep adding them.

Man I gotta agree. Now a lot of folks go to a Church or other venue and trick or treat there...for saftey reasons. Trick or Treating isn't Trick or Treating till you walk around till 9pm getting candy...need to start around 6p to get dibs on the good stuff.