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#Post#: 17845--------------------------------------------------
Re: Halloween
By: lakey Date: October 31, 2018, 9:05 pm
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I tend to not get many trick or treaters because a good share of
my neighbors are older, and there aren't a lot of kids on my
block. This year I got 35, so that is quite a few for me. The
kids were all very polite and said thank you. I was a bit
surprised at how fast some cars were driving past my house
during trick or treat hours. This is a residential neighborhood
and they were going quite a bit faster than they're supposed to
anyway, much less when you know there are kids out walking.
#Post#: 17850--------------------------------------------------
Re: Halloween
By: CrazyCatLady Date: October 31, 2018, 10:21 pm
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I'm in NYC, but a very suburban borough. Around here we just
see general trick or treating - some areas more than others. A
friend who lives only a few miles away gets nobody, but my block
gets large waves of kids over the whole afternoon. I do find
that kids seem to be lazier than Sis and I were as kids - we
never let stairs or other impediments to front doors deter us,
but kids these days don't like to climb the porch steps to my
front door. They stand below, in the driveway and hold their
bags open, asking that I drop the candy. That was a few years
ago, though. Today the kids climbed the stairs. I refilled my
treating bowl 4 times. (And the cat, who thinks he needs to
explore the whole world, only escaped twice.)
People do have parties, but generally on the weekend. And now
some weirdo somewhere around here is setting off fireworks.
Just the noisy ones.
#Post#: 17874--------------------------------------------------
Re: Halloween
By: Thitpualso Date: November 1, 2018, 10:39 am
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I live in a nice neighborhood in Brooklyn. Most kids here don’t
go door to door after dark because many houses here have quite
high stoops. Going up and down ten or more steps over and over
while wearing unfamiliar clothes can be a chore. Instead, in
the late afternoon, they visit merchants on commercial streets
then go home for an early dinner before the evening parade.
The merchants can provide unconventional treats. The bagel shop
gives bagels and the Chinese restaurant hands out fortune
cookies. A doughnut shop offers doughnut holes (think Tim
Bites)
The parade was good but there weren’t as many bands as usual.
It was a good Halloween but not a special one.
#Post#: 17876--------------------------------------------------
Re: Halloween
By: Chez Miriam Date: November 1, 2018, 10:54 am
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[quote author=Irked Purist link=topic=750.msg17811#msg17811
date=1541010193]
Modern Trick-or-Treating may have been greatly influenced and
codified by how it's done in the USA, but it's by no means
'simply cribbed from' there. It developed in its modern form
from the (mainly Scots, still-extant) practice of guising,
general British mumming traditions (clock the similarities to
Wassailing), the mediaeval Soul Cake custom, and possibly back
further to Celtic religious remembrances.
The ingredients of costumes, mischief, occultism,
ghosts/remembering the dead, and door-to-door requesting of
small edible gifts were all in place and are just as much a part
of traditional UK folk practices as they are North American
ones. Even carved jack o'lanterns were an import to the USA-
originally turnips or mangold-wurzels.
I don't love commercial modern Hallowe'en because I'm not one
for cheap tat and, on principle, I dislike scary things being
confined to one month a year. Spook up year round, please!
Soul-caking or All Hallows' doesn't apply as I'm not a
Christian, I can't claim any Scottish or Irish background to
legitimise my guising, and I'm not in the West Country where
things like Punkie Night are still observed. Plus I don't have
any youngsters who are desperate to trick-or-treat. So my
evening will be indoors and fairly quiet; I have my own
observances.
But it's a shame to see our own folk traditions dismissed
wholesale. Anyone who is nostalgic for a less
orange-and-black-tat-saturated time of year could do worse than
reading up on the precursors of modern Hallowe'en and maybe
bringing some of them back if they're up for it. Traditions can
be rediscovered and hold strong if they provide an important
community focus- or are merely sufficiently fun.
Oddly, I went most of my life without seeing a guy- even going
to big, official Scouts' bonfire nights- and thought they were a
thing of the past, but started seeing them every year when I
moved to my current area. There's not masses but there are
community bonfire celebrations of all sizes and they're still a
part of those.
[/quote]
Every time my husband says that Hallowe'en is a US import, I
think "doesn't my childhood count?". I now tell him *every
single time* that we used to celebrate Hallowe'en, so it wasn't
an imported thing where I grew up [halfway between Manchester
and Birmingham]. Ah, the soaking wet clothes from apple
bobbing. ;) ;D
I do like carving pumpkins, though; so much easier than the
turnips* I carved as a child!
* aka "swedes" to other parts of the UK. ::)
#Post#: 17880--------------------------------------------------
Re: Halloween
By: DaDancingPsych Date: November 1, 2018, 11:22 am
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My trick-or-treaters were disappointing this year.
Year 1: 30 kids
Year 2: 9 kids during the first hour (I had to leave during the
second hour, so I am not sure how many helped themselves to
treats)
Year 3: 5 kids
I answered the door only three times. The minimal effort that I
put in was not even worth it. The temperature was nice, but it
had rained beforehand.
However, a friend has alerted me to the teal pumpkin campaign
were you label yourself as a home that is giving
allergy-friendly treats (ie. small toys.) They have a website
where you can list your address, so I think I may do that next
year. It may or may not attract additional kids, but maybe I can
help someone have a special night!
#Post#: 17882--------------------------------------------------
Re: Halloween
By: Chez Miriam Date: November 1, 2018, 11:30 am
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[quote author=DaDancingPsych link=topic=750.msg17880#msg17880
date=1541089347]
My trick-or-treaters were disappointing this year.
Year 1: 30 kids
Year 2: 9 kids during the first hour (I had to leave during the
second hour, so I am not sure how many helped themselves to
treats)
Year 3: 5 kids
I answered the door only three times. The minimal effort that I
put in was not even worth it. The temperature was nice, but it
had rained beforehand.
However, a friend has alerted me to the teal pumpkin campaign
were you label yourself as a home that is giving
allergy-friendly treats (ie. small toys.) They have a website
where you can list your address, so I think I may do that next
year. It may or may not attract additional kids, but maybe I can
help someone have a special night!
[/quote]
That sounds like a brilliant idea, and kind of you to make an
effort on behalf of kids who might otherwise miss out.
[emoji169]
#Post#: 17889--------------------------------------------------
Re: Halloween
By: DaDancingPsych Date: November 1, 2018, 12:44 pm
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[quote author=Chez Miriam link=topic=750.msg17882#msg17882
date=1541089821]
[quote author=DaDancingPsych link=topic=750.msg17880#msg17880
date=1541089347]
My trick-or-treaters were disappointing this year.
Year 1: 30 kids
Year 2: 9 kids during the first hour (I had to leave during the
second hour, so I am not sure how many helped themselves to
treats)
Year 3: 5 kids
I answered the door only three times. The minimal effort that I
put in was not even worth it. The temperature was nice, but it
had rained beforehand.
However, a friend has alerted me to the teal pumpkin campaign
were you label yourself as a home that is giving
allergy-friendly treats (ie. small toys.) They have a website
where you can list your address, so I think I may do that next
year. It may or may not attract additional kids, but maybe I can
help someone have a special night!
[/quote]
That sounds like a brilliant idea, and kind of you to make an
effort on behalf of kids who might otherwise miss out.
[emoji169]
[/quote]
I think the campaign is amazing, too! If the kids won't take my
candy, maybe they will come for the other treats!!!
#Post#: 17908--------------------------------------------------
Re: Halloween
By: Amara Date: November 1, 2018, 2:49 pm
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I have no children so have never participated in Halloween once
I got out of childhood myself. I actually loathe the 'holiday"
so it wouldn't occur to me to have candy. But . . . if I did
want to participate I would buy some rolls of dimes and nickels
and hand those out instead.
#Post#: 17920--------------------------------------------------
Re: Halloween
By: Aleko Date: November 1, 2018, 3:25 pm
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Trick-or-treating has been officially discouraged in my
neighbourhood for 15 years or so now, so we don't get many. When
it was commonplace, I used to stock up on clementines or
tangerines, and would hand them out beaming like Lady Bountiful,
and watch their little faces go 'Ewww! Fruit! Where are the
Snickers bars?' Suck it up kiddo, I won't help you get Type 2
diabetes.
Sad, really; in my childhood when my mother filled our Christmas
stockings (which were our ordinary knee socks, not huge
sock-shaped cloth bags like now) she always put a clementine in
the toe, and that was a real treat then.
#Post#: 17922--------------------------------------------------
Re: Halloween
By: Chez Miriam Date: November 1, 2018, 3:34 pm
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[quote author=Aleko link=topic=750.msg17920#msg17920
date=1541103942]
Trick-or-treating has been officially discouraged in my
neighbourhood for 15 years or so now, so we don't get many. When
it was commonplace, I used to stock up on clementines or
tangerines, and would hand them out beaming like Lady Bountiful,
and watch their little faces go 'Ewww! Fruit! Where are the
Snickers bars?' Suck it up kiddo, I won't help you get Type 2
diabetes.
Sad, really; in my childhood when my mother filled our Christmas
stockings (which were our ordinary knee socks, not huge
sock-shaped cloth bags like now) she always put a clementine in
the toe, and that was a real treat then.
[/quote]
I don't think it's sad: we had very little, but never realised
that at the time. A clementine was an immense treat - only
available over the Christmas period, so we really appreciated
them...
The walnuts? Yeah, not so much! ;) ;D
I can now crack walnuts, but no chance of my managing to get
them apart as a nipper. And they always tasted bitter/rancid
(to me at least).
I sometimes feel a little sorry for some of the youngsters now:
the expectations seem a lot higher, and having so many toys make
it less likely that a treasured memory nearly 50 years later
will be the "zoo"* made by Granddad and painted by Mum.
* It was a slightly-odd shaped chipboard box, with a giraffe on
one side and an elephant on the other, and I had a few
not-to-scale plastic zoo animals. One of my abiding memories of
being a small child.
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