Bummed out

[Rich Riddle]

Rick,

I lived in a historic neighborhood in Kansas City where we would get between 1000 and 2000 a night. Guess they figured the "rich" folks gave out better candy. These days we get about 50. The last kid I see walking down the street gets everything left.

[Stewie Simpson]

Halloween seems to have generated a bit of a craze here in Australia the last few years amongst the young kids. Every time there is a knock on the door, I ask them what country they live in. When they answer Australia, I then close the door with no hand outs. Next year I might have some fun and dress up in a scary clown suit. That should put me on the do not knock list the following year.

[Brent Cutshall]

"Rich folks" I see what you did there Rich, good one! Look here, on my street, if you go knocking around someone's house at night, weeellll let me just say that you'll get something but it won't be candy. A mile up the road is the abode of a moonshiner, really nice ol'guy, he got struck by lightning once while he was up on the mountain and his wife drug him back down. People who know him don't go there without letting him know. People who don't know him go there, but they don't come BACK, MWOOHAAHAHAHA!!! (everything was true but the dead people, they wouldn't be able to find him anyway)But seriously, don't go there. A mile down the road is my dad's cousin. He's not into Halloween, and he still might get you if startle him at night. As for my Halloween, I had to do school, eat an apple, work on Christmas orders, and start on a lathe I'm building. Yeah that's right! I'm building St. Roy's treadle lathe!(With my own touches, tweaks, and twists of course) Wish me luck!

[Alan Rutherford]

We're at the end of an unpaved dead-end road where the houses are at least a couple of hundred yards apart and many not visible from the street. No one walks up to houses around here in the dark. In fact you gotta be careful even in daylight. And I don't know how far you have to go to find someone of trick-or-treat age anyway.

Not too many lifetimes ago I lived in nearly the first house from the entrance to an upscale neighborhood where the houses were conveniently close to the street and close together. We'd see parents dropping kids off by the carload. I think some older kids drove themselves. Location, location, location. Another place where the "market" was only local, if we "advertised" - jack-o-lanterns visible from the street, porch light on, house not too scary, we'd get a few dozen but I'd always have a little candy left for myself.

The organized events and the safety articles in the news are a real downer on the spirit of the thing. Next Spring we can talk about the plastic-egg hunts for Easter.

[Bert Kemp]

6 years here and I have never had anyone knock on the door. I admit my house sits about a hundred yards back from the road and away from the other houses on the street, but the neighbors say the kids go to town. They told me they go town and sit in the grocery store parking lot and pass out candy off the back of their truck, they say a lot of people do it just to see all the costumes.

[Chris Damm]

This was the 1st year in 20 that we had any kids. We moved to SC last year and even though we are in a subdivision with at least 35 children under 15 we only had 5 from the neighborhood and 2 that were bussed in. Lots of candy for the grandkids next visit (if there's left).

[Brett Luna]

Ummmm???? There are SUBURBS in ALASKA? Seriously? Please forgive my total and utter ignorance Brett, but your whole, very enormous State has only 3/4 of a million people - why do you need suburbs?

Of course, we're not a teeming metropolis (thank goodness!) but the Municipality of Anchorage is a bit larger land-wise than Rhode Island and comprises about 40% of that ¾-million people. Reaching out a little farther, into the neighboring Matanuska-Susitna and Kenai Peninsula boroughs (each larger than West Virginia) almost half of the state's population lives within 50 miles of downtown Anchorage...as the raven flies. I suppose you could call Peters Creek rural since it's on the outskirts of the Muni, well out of Anchorage proper, and beyond Eagle River for that matter. But I do live in a platted, residential subdivision within earshot of a 4-lane highway. It's true that we're on well water and our mailbox is a little ways down our mountain but we do have electric, gas, broadband cable, and weekly refuse service. Hell, we even have indoor plumbing! Just not too many trick-or-treaters. Or a Woodcraft store.

[Tim Boger]

10 years here in SC, no street lights, no sidewalks and no trick or treaters.

Prior to SC we were in Southern Cal in a planed community and we'd get cleaned out of candy every year ... we loved the young children in costumes but some of the older teens kinda rubbed me the wrong way.
Tim

[Belinda Barfield]

I live in a "destination" neighborhood, on the main drag. Seriously, people come with van loads of kids. I usually do the trick or treat thing, but this year I was home alone so I didn't. Turned off the front porch light and still had 8 or 10 doorbell rings. The first year in the neighborhood I was completely cleaned out of candy, turned off the porch light, and still had people ringing the doorbell at midnight. Our county did decide of "do" Halloween on Monday night and I think that was probably the reason for less rings than typical.

[Brian Henderson]

I just spent 17 years living in a place where nobody ever came. We had a grand total of 2 people in 17 years. Then we moved into a neighborhood and we got about 40 people on Halloween. I have no idea if that's the norm or not, but we bought enough for 200 and have lots of candy left over. By the time it gets dark, you get nobody, which I think is really stupid, but that's the modern Halloween.

[Gordon Eyre]

Last year we had two doorbell rings with several kids in both groups. This year we had zero. I like seeing the little kids in their cute costumes but it has dwindled to nothing over the last ten years.