Wait a minute!

[Mimiheart]

There have been years where we've gone to my sister-in-law's to trick-or-treat. When I was a kid, I remember having friends come over and trick-or-treating in my neighborhood with me. Once in a while I would go over to theirs. It's about doing it with family or with a friend, not about going to a different neighborhood.

We went around our neighborhood tonight. My son ran off with his friend and the dads, and I took the girls. The boys ran from house to house, but we ran into them a couple of times. We took longer, and as we were coming back to the house, four hayrides with kids chanting, "We want more candy!" came up to our cul-de-sac. Um... what?

The kids poured out of the trailers, no adult supervision (maybe 3 or four adults for every 15 kids), and descended upon the various houses. We ran out of candy as the first group hit our house. Some of the kids weren't even wearing costumes. All were carrying pillowcases that were half-full.

I turned off our lights.

[Ninjacorpse]

You should have been better prepared. :snooty: :razz:

[sircharliebrown]

We took our 8-month-old to town for the Halloween festivities put on by all the local shops.

Yeah, we used our 8-month-old so mom and dad could score candy! :shifty: :))


Seriously though....what happened to you kind of sucks. I don't blame you for turning the lights off!

[CaptainPike]

We never get any kids. We took our kids around for about an hour. They didn't get a lot but that's fine with me. They don't need to be eating too much junk.

[angelicmadrigal]

This normally happens when different towns host Trick or Treat at either different times or different nights. That's when you usually get kids not from your neighborhood.

[EnchantedFrog]

Our neighborhood became a "target" because there are a large number of families with school-age kids. They decorate up their houses and yards and there are a ton of trick-or-treaters.

We began to realize that people were bringing in busloads of kids from other parts of town to prey on the area.

My wife and I began a tradition of turning out the lights and going out on Halloween. Last night, we went to the Texas Roadhouse at dusk and didn't return until all the kids were gone.

[LouC]

There have been years where we've gone to my sister-in-law's to trick-or-treat. When I was a kid, I remember having friends come over and trick-or-treating in my neighborhood with me. Once in a while I would go over to theirs. It's about doing it with family or with a friend, not about going to a different neighborhood.

We went around our neighborhood tonight. My son ran off with his friend and the dads, and I took the girls. The boys ran from house to house, but we ran into them a couple of times. We took longer, and as we were coming back to the house, four hayrides with kids chanting, "We want more candy!" came up to our cul-de-sac. Um... what?

The kids poured out of the trailers, no adult supervision (maybe 3 or four adults for every 15 kids), and descended upon the various houses. We ran out of candy as the first group hit our house. Some of the kids weren't even wearing costumes. All were carrying pillowcases that were half-full.

I turned off our lights.

Sounds similar to the events that ruined trick or treating in our McKinney Texas neighborhood in the late 90's.

For years after we moved there it was a wonderful event where people would decorate the fronts of their houses, some very elaborately, and neighbor parents would go out with their small costumed kids and walk up and down the street trick or treating.

Porch lights were all on, lit pumpkins were welcoming the ghosts and goblins from peoples front stoops.

Then one year things changed for some inexplicable reason.

The people and kids coming to the door weren't just kids from the neighborhood.

There were bunches of un-costumed teens, and there were mothers with their little ones but they would hold out bags allegedly collecting for kids who were at home.

We started getting attitudes about our treats from those coming to the door.

I had to go to the store to get a lot more candy because of all those coming from all across town.

The following year it got worse.

People weren’t just coming to our neighborhood from across town they were coming in with cars and van loads of kids from Frisco which is 14 miles west of McKinney, and they were coming in with loads from Princeton which is 9 miles east of McKinney.

There were incidents of damage to decorations, pumpkins stolen from stoops and tossed in the streets.

After 11:00 pm, after the time for trick or treating was over, after we had long run out of treats and had shut off the porch light my wife and I were watching TV when we heard a bunch of teens come to our door an start ringing the bell.

They were loud and cursing and I heard one girl exclaim "I know they are in there I can see the TV is on", we tried to ignore it for a while hoping they would get the hint that the party was over.

I finally gave up and went to run them off but before I got to the door they had left for the next house.

Halloween was ruined for our street.

The following year the street was undecorated, there were no pumpkins on the stoop, and only about a quarter of the houses even had their porch lights on.

I put up rolled construction fencing around the front of the house to keep punks from out of town, mothers of kids that couldn’t be bothered to do their own trick or treating, and loud obnoxious teens from coming to our door.

[EnchantedFrog]

Halloween was ruined for our street.

The following year the street was undecorated, there were no pumpkins on the stoop, and only about a quarter of the houses even had their porch lights on.
Rest assured that Nancy Pelosi and the democrats have not overlooked this problem.

They will pass a bill in Congress that dictates that you are required to provide candy to ALL trick-or-treaters. And, they will determine a "minimum" candy. You can't just pass out little hard candies, you must provide, at least, Milky Way's or Snickers.

[LouC]

Rest assured that Nancy Pelosi and the democrats have not overlooked this problem.

They will pass a bill in Congress that dictates that you are required to provide candy to ALL trick-or-treaters. And, they will determine a "minimum" candy. You can't just pass out little hard candies, you must provide, at least, Milky Way's or Snickers.

I would not be surprised.

[rhet 2]

When I was a kid, you didn't care where the other kids lived -- they were part of the fun, even if they did live on the other side of town

And we all shared the goodies equally -- we told each other which house was handing out the best yummies and which were old grumpy guts to avoid -- and had contests to see who had the most in their bag, who had the best costumes, who had played the most fun tricks on the old grumpy guts.

Then people started handing out poison -- literally, poisoned candy, drug infested apples, etc. -- to deliberately hurt innocent kids because they were so full of hate, they couldn't enjoy the fun of kids -- selfish, cruel, indifferent humanity hating sons of bitches who deliberately hurt kids because that was their basic character, haters and destroyers.

And Halloween turned into "Dreams of What Used to Be"

I don't care where the kids live: I'll give to anyone anything I can spare so that someone else can have a little joy, a little fun, some small measure of Me in their lives.

Especially kids

[BillBrown]

When I was a kid, in the '50s, there were no organized Halloween activities.
People just turned their kids loose to go where they wanted to and told them to be back by a certain time.
I'm sure there were perverts then, but you never heard of them and no one thought about that.

Two or three blocks of knocking every door and we were ready to go back.

[traditional_woman]

There have been years where we've gone to my sister-in-law's to trick-or-treat. When I was a kid, I remember having friends come over and trick-or-treating in my neighborhood with me. Once in a while I would go over to theirs. It's about doing it with family or with a friend, not about going to a different neighborhood.

We went around our neighborhood tonight. My son ran off with his friend and the dads, and I took the girls. The boys ran from house to house, but we ran into them a couple of times. We took longer, and as we were coming back to the house, four hayrides with kids chanting, "We want more candy!" came up to our cul-de-sac. Um... what?

The kids poured out of the trailers, no adult supervision (maybe 3 or four adults for every 15 kids), and descended upon the various houses. We ran out of candy as the first group hit our house. Some of the kids weren't even wearing costumes. All were carrying pillowcases that were half-full.

I turned off our lights.

How old were the unsurpervised kids? If they were under 12 that would bother me too, however kids not having a costume wouldn't phase me any. You never know, maybe they couldn't afford one. My kids have never been trick or treating. They'd rather be at church jumping in the bouncy houses, and playing games . We did the 'trunk or treat' last night for the first time. They got about a half bag of candy, that they'll bug me over every day until it's all gone:wall:

[LouC]

...Then people started handing out poison -- literally, poisoned candy, drug infested apples, etc. -- to deliberately hurt innocent kids because they were so full of hate, they couldn't enjoy the fun of kids -- selfish, cruel, indifferent humanity hating sons of bitches who deliberately hurt kids because that was their basic character, haters and destroyers...

That really is a myth that just won't die.

[LouC]

When I was a kid, in the '50s, there were no organized Halloween activities.
People just turned their kids loose to go where they wanted to and told them to be back by a certain time.
I'm sure there were perverts then, but you never heard of them and no one thought about that.

Two or three blocks of knocking every door and we were ready to go back.

Back then, just like now, the kids are usually moving farther away from their potential molesters when leaving the family units and going out into public.

[Mimiheart]

When I was a kid, you didn't care where the other kids lived -- they were part of the fun, even if they did live on the other side of town

And we all shared the goodies equally -- we told each other which house was handing out the best yummies and which were old grumpy guts to avoid -- and had contests to see who had the most in their bag, who had the best costumes, who had played the most fun tricks on the old grumpy guts.

Then people started handing out poison -- literally, poisoned candy, drug infested apples, etc. -- to deliberately hurt innocent kids because they were so full of hate, they couldn't enjoy the fun of kids -- selfish, cruel, indifferent humanity hating sons of bitches who deliberately hurt kids because that was their basic character, haters and destroyers.

And Halloween turned into "Dreams of What Used to Be"

I don't care where the kids live: I'll give to anyone anything I can spare so that someone else can have a little joy, a little fun, some small measure of Me in their lives.

Especially kidsMy kids were doing the first part with the other kids... "They're giving full candy bars!!!" there were a ton of kids at 6 or so when we started all from our neighborhood or friends of our neighborhood.

The busload of kids from another neighborhood bothered me more from their behavior and the attitude than coming from another neighborhood. If they had come, and then gone from house to house, there was a chance we may not have noticed them/it wouldn't have bothered me as much... instead, they just ran from the hayride, screaming about wanting more candy, grabbed from the bowls... Also, I had four BIG bags of candy. We went through two of them with the kids from the neighborhood. This group of kids knocked us out in one mob -- that's how many there were. Yeah, I wasn't prepared for that!

[Mimiheart]

How old were the unsurpervised kids? If they were under 12 that would bother me too, however kids not having a costume wouldn't phase me any. You never know, maybe they couldn't afford one. My kids have never been trick or treating. They'd rather be at church jumping in the bouncy houses, and playing games . We did the 'trunk or treat' last night for the first time. They got about a half bag of candy, that they'll bug me over every day until it's all gone:wall:
They were probably between 8 and 15.

As for not affording one... we made my son's zombie costume by tearing up some old clothes of his. My youngest's costume cost $4. We went to the dollar store and got a witch dress and stockings and broom. The hat came from the dollar section at Target, and I added some glitter to it. My middle one was a snow princess... hers was $15, I think, but it's a dress-up dress.

[Gabby]

It's not unusual for kids from poor neighborhoods to go in large numbers to the neighborhoods they think are handing out better treats. Happens here all the time.

This year we are sick... don't think it's H1N1 but it's misserable. So we put up Caution tape and and sign with a skull & cross bones that said Swine Flu.


and we turned off the lights. 2 groups of kids rang our door bell anyway. I opened the door to the first group and told them we had swine flu. their eyes got big and they backed away. lol... guess they got their scare for the night.