Halloween, these days...

[starry-eyed pirate]

...just aint what it used to be.  Around here it's over before dark!  The doorbell first rings about 5 and the street is empty again by 6:30pm !  Some Halloween.  I feel sorry for these kids.  I guess it all became too real with all the kidnappings in the media and those old horror stories about candy-apples with razor blades in them and what-not.  Most of the kids these days are accompanied by an adult or 2.  What a drag!  No room for a kid to have any real adventure!  They don't know what they're missin though.

When I was a lad we stayed out til 10pm or later trick or treatin and we went with our friends or siblings and didn't have to have our parents hold our hand through the whole thing.  What passes for Halloween these days is a hollow shell of the Halloween I knew and loved.  And some stuff went down, like the time my friend got his bag 'a' candy stolen by that older kid, and there was a fist fight but the kid got the candy and took off runnin.  That sucked but we were out on our own trick or treatin late at night.  And I reckon it would really suck to bite down on a razor blade or consume poison candy or somethin but just seems like that pro'ly only ever happened to few unfortunate kids.    

I think Halloween is a microcosm for what's happened to America.  It's a lot less fun and a whole lot tamer than it used to be, the kids don't even notice how domesticated they've all become.

Everyone's afraid and they'd rather have security than adventure.

[Anonymous]

interesting that you say that...
you are right for the most part, but slightly incorrect. It's gotten tamer for the kids but wilder for the adults.

Here in NYC, living in an apartment building, especially a big one, presents it's challenges to trick or treaters. First off, you cant go from building to building as for the most part, all buildings have security that does not allow visitors without authorization from the tenant through a buzzer system or doormen. Therefore trick-or-treating takes place only within your own building mostly (unless you go to a freind's building). Also, you cant just knock on anyone's door. Buildings have lists where you can sign up as a candy donor, and kids are not allowed to knock on anyone's door who is not on that list. On top of that.....kids are chaperoned 90% of the time. even within large luxury high-rises.

but parents have good reasons to be paranoid.

NYC turns into a playground for adults on halloween. at the parade in downtown manhattan, the streets are absolutely packed with revelers. most people are drunk. there is a great deal of drugs being used openly on the street. Every bar and club get packed to the brim. Every year, every holding cell in downtown manhattan also packed to the brim by the morning.

The fact that everyone is wearing a costume poses an advantage to criminals. they can wear a mask too, not be out of place, commit a crime and just take off their costume/mask or change it, and considering the crowds, it's very easy to get away with pretty much anything on halloween in NYC. The bad apples of society know this, and they take advantage of it.

My school would let out an hour early every year on halloween. That's because kids from the public school down the block - minority kids mostly bussed in from the ghetto - would try to mug anyone wearing our school's uniform. They would get away with it too - they just flipped their jackets inside out, put on different masks, and scattered. The next year they caught on and they were waiting for us an hour early, so the following year the school decided to cancel school on halloween every year.