It's that time of year again

[The Real MC]

Wow Halloween is here already.  Almost forgot to change my display name.

[bill5]

Happy Hallothankmus!
 

Is it spring yet?  

[RABid]

What is the Halloween version of Scrooge? That is what I have turned into in my old age. My little subdivision gets slammed most years. Last time I handed out candy I had 300 people in the first 30 minutes. One year my neighbor came carrying my little cat back to me after she found it in a girls bag. She recognized it because she gave it to me. What made her mad is the girl's mother said "It's just a cat". Another year I saw a boy proudly showing his parents the mechanical spider that he had swiped off of my porch when I was not looking. An no, they did not make him bring it back. (Bah. Humbug. ... Get off of my lawn.)

[KuruPrionz]

Not to "one-up" Rabid but I live in a condo in a three story multi-unit complex. 

My entry door is in the staircase, you have to unlock the staircase door to find it. 

No trick or treater will ever find the door and if they do I just won't answer. 

 

There are lots of music performances all over town in various clubs but there are also more than the usual number of police officers patrolling everywhere, and random groups of children - many who are wearing dark colored outfits - wandering about, crossing streets etc. It's safer for all concerned if I just stay quietly home and avoid the entire event. 

 

If somewhere fun was in walking distance and it wasn't raining I might consider it. Otherwise, it will go away. 

And, Kuru Prionz is already a Halloween name. Quoted from some Wikipedia post: 

"Kuru is a rare and fatal brain disorder that occurred at epidemic levels from the 1950s to 1960s among the Fore people in the highlands of New Guinea. The disease was the result of the practice of ritualistic cannibalism among the Fore, in which relatives prepared and consumed the tissues (including brain) of deceased family members. Brain tissue from individuals with kuru was highly infectious, and the disease was transmitted either through eating or by contact with open sores or wounds. Kuru is the Fore word for shiver.

Government discouragement of the practice of cannibalism led to a continuing decline in the disease, which has now mostly disappeared."

 

Prionz is simply a mis-spelling of prions: "A prion is a misfolded protein that can transmit its misfoldedness to normal variants of the same protein and trigger cellular death. Prions cause prion diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies that are transmissible, fatal neurodegenerative diseases in humans and animals."

 

For that matter,  RABid is Halloween as all get out!!!! 

[Michael Wright]

This is the way. 

[mate stubb]

The organ plays till midnight!

[drawback]

Sorry but I had to resurect the original Zombie thread!

[Dave Bryce]

 

gB

[Lindaru]

Yup.  I was turned to this back on October 1st.  The night time is so enchanting.  It could drive you batty with how still the thick foggy air is.  You could sink your teeth into it.  A wander through the grave yard, bloody mary in hand.  The howls in the distance of the wolves, so beautiful during the full moon.  Trick or treaters?  They are so tasty!  Um . . . so adorable.  Now I am lost.  Where is my castle?  You know, the one with the antique coffin?

Seriously, no candy given out here.  I am going to give the kiddies something that lasts a lot longer than candy.  Something that in years to come will be extremely valuable as it is already fading into obscurity.

Coins.  U.S. quarters, nickels and dimes.  Stash them away kiddies.  By the time you have kids of your own, this stuff will have been eliminated from actual use.
 

[Lou Gehrig Charles]

3 hours ago, RABid said:

My little subdivision gets slammed most years. Last time I handed out candy I had 300 people in the first 30 minutes.

I have the opposite situation.  I live on a T intersection but it's on the top of the "T".  I can look out the window and see kids coming down the perpendicular street but they reach the corner and turn left or right but for some reason almost never come across to our side.  I bet the house across the street gets five times the number of visitors than we do.

[bill5]

5 hours ago, RABid said:

What is the Halloween version of Scrooge? That is what I have turned into in my old age. My little subdivision gets slammed most years. Last time I handed out candy I had 300 people in the first 30 minutes. One year my neighbor came carrying my little cat back to me after she found it in a girls bag. She recognized it because she gave it to me. What made her mad is the girl's mother said "It's just a cat". Another year I saw a boy proudly showing his parents the mechanical spider that he had swiped off of my porch when I was not looking. An no, they did not make him bring it back. (Bah. Humbug. ... Get off of my lawn.)

Wait...someone just out-Scrooged me? Did Hell freeze over??

 

tbh if I got a total ton of kids I could see it getting old (and expensive!), but I loved giving out candy to kids, though our traffic was low. When I first moved here, it was one of the most fun Halloweens ever because all the kids were pretty young and cute and so polite. Gradually as they got older, no trick-or-treaters, and I miss it. (They loved me too because I was generous with the candy...I got those "bite-sized" or whatever they're called like 1/2 candy bars and they'd take one and I'd go "cmon, take more that that!!" Their eyes would light up lol) 

[RABid]

I really enjoyed it when I first moved to the neighborhood 12 years ago. I would make 30 treat bags for local kids that I recognized, then give regular treats to the others. There were a lot of trick or treaters but it was not overwhelming. Suddenly word got out and everyone was coming. Last few years maybe half of my neighbors gave candy. The rest turned out the lights. This year we have a lot of new families from out of state that have moved into the neighborhood. They all seem excited to experience Halloween in a small town rather than a big city.

[RABid]

A quick follow-up. Traffic is now (Halloween trick or treat time) backed up in both directions in my little neighborhood.

 

[mate stubb]

We've had 1 so far.

[jazzpiano88]

We've had 2.    But it's 27F and the wind is howling -- 20mph gusting to 35mph out of the north.   

[Docbop]

I haven't seen a trick or treater in close to 15-20 years.   When I still had my house in LA I'd see the parents with little kids take there kids out, but only to houses they knew who also had little kids,   Older kids most had or went to parties.   Moving out to the desert living in a large apartment complex I thought I'd get trick or treaters from the complex but no like in LA parents with little kids went only to neighbors they are friends with and other go to parties.   Then the assh0l3 in apartment complex next door will set off fireworks and trigger car alarms.   

 

Kind of miss the old Halloweens before world got so crazy.  Usually go trick or treating for awhile, then go to the local park they'd have small carnival with games and food.  They would grease up the flag pole and put a twenty dollar bill on top, twenty was a lot of money then.  So lots of greasy guys from trying to climb the pole.  Then the weird one they would get a car from the junkyard and for ten cents you could take three swings with a sledge hammer and beat up the car.   After that then home for some late night trick or treating.  Different time. 

[Finale]

[Rod S]

For some odd reason halloween caught on here.  (mostly in the rich area gated communities).   We did our first house decorating ever - had about 15-20 waves of kids coming through (on Saturday).    My daughter loves it.    Weather was nice, it was about 24C / 75F, but we did have some fierce winds around noon and most of the houses had to fix the decorations.  i call my house Wuthering Heights, we get some fierce winds since we're on a hill.  

[David Emm]

1 hour ago, JazzPiano88 said:

We've had 2.    But it's 27F and the wind is howling -- 20mph gusting to 35mph out of the north.   

 

In that kind of cold, even Satan's minions tend to make themselves scarce.

The trick and the treat meld into one if you just make it home without freezing your soft bits off. Been there! 🎃 

[RABid]

Some of my neighbors really went big time with the decorating this year. I wonder if they also went big time with candy. I noticed that prices were double what they were last year. I went around and chatted with neighbors. Almost no one was giving out chocolate. They all had vats of the cheaper stuff. Trick or treating was supposed to be from 6 to 8, but most people in my neighborhood ran out of candy by 7 and closed up. Oh, that reminds me, the neighbor’s cats are in my garage. Was keeping them safe.

[mate stubb]

We ended up with 35 kids or so. I bought a pair of life size musical skeletons this year that play a New Orleans style duet on trumpet and sax. They were a big hit.

 

 

[Bill H.]

I actually had a few trick or treaters last night. I live at the end of a dead end street that used to be mostly seniors (like myself) but have been replaced with a few young families. It was fun seeing kids on the street this year. 

 

Halloween candy was a bit of sticker shock, so I just went with Snickers bars. I have a few left, which I'm sure will be gone in a couple of days

 

I just returned from visiting my son in Tokyo. In light of last year's tragedy at Itaewon South Korea - where people were crushed to death during a Halloween celebration - there were signs all over Shibuya saying "No events for Halloween on Shibuya streets!" in both Japanese and English. This is a very crowded area normally, and I guess last year's Halloween was insane. Shibuya has the same kinds of narrow streets as Itaewon... hopefully it worked to subdue the crowds somewhat. 

 

 

[Docbop]

No trick or treater this year not even the families with kids going to the other families with kids apartments.   A couple apartments did put up some Halloween decorations.   Went to pay my rent and they complex manager had a lifesize Michael Myers in a chair in the corner so you don't see it at first, that was funny.  

[Lou Gehrig Charles]

I bought three bags of candy, but only gave out less than 1.5.....  I gave two pieces to each kid so I could do the math as to how many kids that adds up to.  The remaining bag I brought into the office this morning where the secretaries will gobble it up in no time.

 

I have a new cat at home and I fully expected him to hide under the couch as soon as people started ringing the doorbell.  Not so; he sat on the couch totally unfazed by the commotion.  But he is an old cat (14) so maybe he knows the doorbell is harmless.

[KuruPrionz]

I went to a local Open Mic. There was a decent number of costumes (and last-minute attempts like mine).

No trick or treaters. 

I wouldn't have had any if I'd stayed home, I have the only condo in a 33 unit complex that has the front door inside a locked stairwell. AND, this year the landscaping subsided enough that the main entry gate has been chained shut since the fence with the latch slid just far enough down the hill to prevent latching. 

Halloween was elsewhere, I went elsewhere. Club soda with a lime slice, no alcohol. I don't drink and drive. It was a fun night with zero candy. 

[Stokely]

We live on a mile-long (exactly! Great for measuring walks, if boring) gated (ugh) circle of a neighborhood.

Been here almost 20 years and it's always packed with kids.

I am anti-social so I leave the candy-giving to my mom and wife, who enjoy it.  My kids are WAY TOO COOL and old now to bother (one is adult, so that follows!)

So, so glad that the giant bowl of candy got consumed.  Otherwise, there would go my diet.

The irritating part to me is that the families start going around when it's still light out.  That's not Halloween!

I can't get over the explosion in Halloween decorations.   One house has 3 (!) HUGE scary figures, not the inflatable kind.  These things are at least 10 feet tall.  Some houses have 5, 10 or more inflatables going in their yard, and you can bet even more for Christmas.   Unless they rent them every year, who has room for that?  I have keyboard gear to store!   

Speaking of Christmas, my wife handed me the card for some service where they come out and decorate your house (with lights at least).   I'm half considering it because I'm scared of heights and the family always bugs me about getting some lights up on the house every year...and of course, not having to store lights all year would be nice.

[Lindaru]

1998 had been my last year for trick or treaters.  I thought with the six kids in the family that moved in in January, that that would be my trick or treaters.  I broke down and bought a small bag of Reese Halloween shaped candy.  Earlier yesterday afternoon, one of the kids came to my door to bring my mail that got delivered to them.  He had his tee shirt pulled up over his face.  Found out the whole family has some kind of virus, so they did not get to trick or treat.  I handed him the bag and told him this is what I was going to give them.

Later I attended an on line live event given by a friend of mine that he produced and I had even had a small role as a nurse in a psycho ward in one of the episodes.  We had a blast in the chat room and enjoyed the two and a half hour six episode presentation.

That was my Halloween.  Now on to Thanksgiving.
 

[Lou Gehrig Charles]

54 minutes ago, Stokely said:

The irritating part to me is that the families start going around when it's still light out.  That's not Halloween!
 

Our town has set limits on trick-or-treating hours; it's either 4-7 or 3:30 -7 which kind of splits the difference.  Half of it is in daylight and the other half darkness, plus or minus obviously depending on cloud cover.  But I usually get just a few stragglers after it gets dark. 

 

I get home from work about 4:45 PM and I suspect I miss a lot of kids that come by while I'm not home yet.