"Trunk Or Treat"

[+ azdr0710]

I just this very moment had to look up what it meant since I've been seeing it on signs all over this year (and never before this year)........well, gee, I suppose it's what we've come to on the mean streets of Hometown, USA......probably much more social and fun, I suppose........safer and blah blah.......I still think kids should fear finding a razor blade in that apple or hate getting the obligatory toothbrush from that dentist down the street.......when I was a tiny kid, my Mom would take my little bro and I around in the dark (Dad was an airline captain and was always gone on Halloween, it seemed) and she'd leave a basket of candy on the stoop ("take only one, please").......I dunno, kids today are wimps........

https://www.npr.org/2023/10/31/1209559780/what-is-trunk-or-treat-halloween

 

[+ Vegas_Millennial]

7 hours ago, azdr0710 said:

I just this very moment had to look up what it meant since I've been seeing it on signs all over this year (and never before this year)........well, gee, I suppose it's what we've come to on the mean streets of Hometown, USA......probably much more social and fun, I suppose........safer and blah blah.......I still think kids should fear finding a razor blade in that apple or hate getting the obligatory toothbrush from that dentist down the street.......when I was a tiny kid, my Mom would take my little bro and I around in the dark (Dad was an airline captain and was always gone on Halloween, it seemed) and she'd leave a basket of candy on the stoop ("take only one, please").......I dunno, kids today are wimps........

https://www.npr.org/2023/10/31/1209559780/what-is-trunk-or-treat-halloween

 

I've seen Trunk or Treet events for about 15 years now, and I agree with you about the "good old days" of door to door neighborhood trick or treating being better. 

However, as a homeowner who used to hand out candy to trick or treaters, I couldn't help notice that with each subsequent year there were more and more adults and fewer children.   It seems the entire extended family must accompany their child through the neighborhood.

It makes sense: kids today don't know how to have fun in person in groups unless there is a screen involved.  And no parent will let their child go trick or treating with a trusted family friend's children, because every parent needs to be watching their OWN child at all times nowadays.

I've stopped leaving my porch light on for Halloween.  It just saddens me to not see groups of children running door to door anymore; but, only see one child accompanied by 5 adults.

[+ Pensant]

I live in the city and I’ve never seen any kids trick or treating. It’s all younger professionals.

[+ sync]

I'm siding with the parents/guardians.  Society has devolved to the point where sending children out on their own on Halloween is imprudent.

[MaybeMaybeNot]

I used to see these as church events. 

[+ Just Chuck]

I saw a really neat version of this last year.  All the local law enforcement, emergency medical service and fire departments had response vehicles staged around one parking lot of the local community college.  Responders staffed each vehicle to hand out both candy and public education information to the kids and their parents.  

I was a professional firefighter and deputy fire marshal long ago.  I would have loved to staff a truck for an event like that!  In that uniform, the smiling gaze of kids always made me feel ten feet tall.

[Njguy2]

Was about 20 years ago ,when I moved to my current home in Northern NJ,  that i became aware of the concept of "Trunk or Treat" .   As a child going out and Trick or Treating as a child, with my sisters, was a highlight growing up in Pennsylvania.  Even with this concept, the town holds Trick or Treating from 4:30 to 8:00 pm, so the real young ones can be out (with parents)  and then as the night comes its a mix of older ages, including ones that are too old for it.  At least the parents let the child, if they are able to walk up steps, come up to the porch to knock.  It's great to see the awe/fascination on their faces after saying "Trick or Treat" and they get candy in return.  On average over the last couple of years, I get about 150 kids come thru on the night.  I can't imagine my parents walking around the neighborhood as the parents do today with their children, different approaches for different times.

[+ Just Chuck]

In the mid-late 1970's my parents would just send my elementary school-aged butt out the door in small-town Oklahoma and just tell me to be home before bedtime to go Trick or Treating.  .

[+ Just Chuck]

In the last years of her life, my mother had dementia and Alzheimers.  It was actually what I'll now call a blessing for me.  She and I had never gotten along well or easily until that time when the hostility was the first thing to go.

She lived in a nursing home.  The nursing home would open up to kids for halloween and the staff and residents would give out candy.  I strongly encourage parents of young kids to call local nursing homes and see if they are doing anything for halloween for kids.  The residents LOVED seeing the kids come in and it was good for the kids to see how that part of their community lives.

[BSR]

3 hours ago, Just Chuck said:

In the mid-late 1970's my parents would just send my elementary school-aged butt out the door in small-town Oklahoma and just tell me to be home before bedtime to go Trick or Treating.  .

Same here, I forget how old I was when my little brother & I started going trick or treating by ourselves in suburban Kansas City, but pretty sure I was real young.  We lived in such a wonderfully safe neighborhood.  Crime was literally nonexistent, and we kids could go out by ourselves without a worry in the world.  It was something we just took for granted growing up, but looking back, I realize how lucky we were.

Edited October 6, 2024 by BSR
Wording

[+ sniper]

Crime is lower now than it was 50 years ago. People have bought into hysteria. There was never any rash of razor blades in apples or candy poisonings either.

 

[+ Vegas_Millennial]

On 10/6/2024 at 5:19 AM, sniper said:

Crime is lower now than it was 50 years ago. People have bought into hysteria

Agree.  It is the safest time to be a child in the history of the world.  AND... These children all have cell phones!  They'll never get lost or be away a from a 911 call for help.

The world only SEAMS scary because parents are paranoid, and therefore never LET their children learn directions or how to go someplace without their supervision.  These are the children that will grow up to be adults without life skills and unable to make a decision on their own; so, in that sense, it is a scary world for them. 🎃 

 

 

Edited October 7, 2024 by Vegas_Millennial

[+ sniper]

What IS different now(well before the pandemic expanded WFH) is that during the day there are fewer adults around and neighbors are definitely less likely to know each other.  So the reaction of keeping a tighter rein on wandering kids has some logic to it, it's just that data would suggedt it's been an overcorrection.