When I moved into my house, I often noticed the sheer volume of children in my subdivision. Riding around on bicycles, and dragging their feet shuffling home after getting off of the school bus that clogs the road at 4:30 every day. I thought to myself that, all i-hate-kids nihilism aside, that it was still a pleasing atmosphere to see, especially in contrast to the warzone that my previous home’s subdivision was devolving to.
All this said, I would have wagered money that come Halloween, my neighborhood would be a veritable hotbed for trick-or-treaters, since there were already a lot of children in the neighborhood, and that my subdivision seemed kind of tailor-made for trick-or-treating since it was relatively flat, homes moderately spaced out and looked affluent enough to attract children into thinking good candy were abundantly available. With such in mind, my home was very well stocked for the freeloaders, with the hopes that maybe a fistful of the stuff would be left for us afterwards.
Which brings us to this morning, where I’ve got a bowl still practically overflowing with candy, and Halloween saw less than like, 30 kids coming to my door. And we had jack-o-lanterns, fake tombstones and a decorated door with blinking lights to indicate that my home was game for the kids.
So I have to ask now, is trick-or-treating pretty much dead these days?
I’ve noticed in the past the number of children participating in trick-or-treating dwindling, but I often figured it was due to factors like my old neighborhood being kind of rough. I never bought into the school night excuse, because I still remember when I was a kid, it didn’t matter if it were on a Sunday, Tuesday or a Friday, the objective of the night was to fill a pillow case with as much free candy as possible, and to hit up every single house in the community in order to achieve that goal.
I know the world is progressively filling with more and worse and increasingly sadistic and creative psychopaths, and safety is always a concern, but the few kids out there trick-or-treating all seem to have their parents with them, hovering nearby to counteract such concerns. To this day, nothing makes me happier on Halloween than well behaved children with their parents actively participating with them, and those children always get bonus candy from me. But I’m seeing fewer of these instances, because frankly I’m seeing fewer trick-or-treaters with each progressive year.
Alternatively, I hear there are events like trunk-or-treating or mall trick-or-treating where conditions can be kept a little more controllable, but very much at the expense of parent-free exploration, adventure and hanging out with friends. The event ends when the rotations are finished, or there are no more stores to hit up, and no point is there any sense of scaring or even being in the dark.
Needless to say, I understand why trick-or-treating seems to be dwindling year after year, but it doesn’t make me any less disappointed to witness the slow and gradual degradation of a staple event of childhood. I still remember going out as a kid with no more of a shitty store-bought costume or simply a pair of pantyhose over my face to appear as a burglar demanding candy, with various casts of friends growing up, never calling it quits until at least 5-6 pounds of candy were collected, and getting fat for days afterward, chipping away at my coveted hauls.
It’s going to be real disappointing when the day comes when the event as a whole simply dies out, because at the rate it’s going, it’s only a matter of time before all interest is lost and then the tradition completely vanishes.
