No kids this Halloween

[MillCreek]

I am bummed.  I guess that moving out to the country with no streetlights, no sidewalks, 0.5 mile from the main road, pouring rain and the howling of coyotes has discouraged the local youth.  Also, in our development of 18 homes, only eight are occupied, and none of them have kids of the right age to go out.

At my former house, we usually had 100-125 kids depending on the weather.  I always like to see what costumes are popular.

[BlueStarLizzard]

That, I think, is the one downside to living in the wilds.

This is the only holiday that I could really see Dad having a ton of fun with if we lived in a place that he could actually do something. If we lived in town, we'd have that house, covered in Halloween decorations and giving out the good candy. Even the dogs would be humiliated by costumes.

[Doggy Daddy]

Doggy Mommy reports that we had bunches and bunches of kids.  Also, we need to have doggy treats available next year.  Quite a few beggars had furry beggars with them.  She also was really impressed with the politeness and good behavior of the kids.  Lining up nicely, polite language...

As she pulled candy duty, I lounged in the bedroom with the 4 dogs, the doorbell in the bedroom turned off, and 2 DVRed episodes of TWD to watch.

Bonus points for running out of kids before running out of candy!

[French G.]

Around here people in outlying areas do a trunk or treat, park cars at the local church and give out treats from there. Otherwise people that want the kids to come by would be too outlying.  In my bustling town of 70 the kid filled a bucket in 5 minutes. Then we got in the car and went to the big city (pop. 227) and walked the streets.

[HankB]

I'm in a suburb just west of Austin, and on my street we've never had many kids coming around on Halloween . . . this year, we had 9 - that's NINE - total trick or treaters.

This is a far cry from when I was a kid growing up in Chicago . . .

[BobR]

We just closed shop @ 2100 local and the final tally of kids is unknown but the stingy candy lady only gave out one piece per beggar this year and went through a little over 9 lbs of candy. We normally get 250-300 each year but I think the count was down this year due to the nasty cold, windy,wet weather. There was too much wind to get my smoke to lie on the floor like it was supposed to do, that was a waste of money for dry ice. Oh well, there is always next year. :)

bob

[Scout26]

Had four sets this year.  A record !!!  Managed to give out a full bag for the first time ever !!! (Each kid got 3 things).


Also when asked "Trick or treat", my deadpan response of "Trick" draw nothing but very, very puzzled looks from the kids and looks of horror from some of the parents....  


 

Plus next year, we're doing this, including a sign with the words...*








*I thought about a sign that reads "Bring It Bitches !!!", but thought that might go over a line...

[Firethorn]

Even the dogs would be humiliated by costumes.

Parent's dogs actually like being 'dressed up' because it means people are going to be paying attention to them.

[BlueStarLizzard]

Parent's dogs actually like being 'dressed up' because it means people are going to be paying attention to them.

Pearl usually likes it for the same reason. Graham thinks we are just stupid.

Dad and I have a long tradition of dressing up the dogs for poops and giggles. This is one of our entertainments when we get bored.

[RoadKingLarry]

I had a particularly "curmudgeonly" Halloween this year. Last race of the season for my sailing club so spent most of the day on the water. After the races we always do a little cookout, burgers and dogs and such while we sit around re-hashing the trash talk of the morning. After that I came home. We're far enough out in the country we don't have trick or treaters.
I'm pretty sure the youngest person I even laid eyes on yesterday was 22 years old.

[lee n. field]

Outside of the grandkids, we had one.  We didn't even have the hulking teenagers who don't even try.

Daughter and family had 200+.

Depends where in town one is

[Perd Hapley]

We had no monsters this year, either. But you don't see me whining about it...  

I kid; I kid.

We sat and watched an old Bella Lugosi serial (or some of it): The Phantom Creeps.

[K Frame]

I've not given out candy in years..

[brimic]

I live out in the country, so no need to bother with trick or treating.
I went over to the ex's house and took my daughter trick or treating- probably the first time we had nice weather for it in the last 10 years, but the numbers of kids were probably 1/10th as are normally seen. I'm guessing that there were a lot of halloween parties because the 31st was on a saturday this year.

[makattak]

Not sure how many we had as I was walking our children through the neighborhood.

However,  we had 4 pieces of candy left when we shut the lights off at 8. I'm proud of that job of estimating.

[Brad Johnson]

Mill, you didn't have kids on your street because they were all on mine.. Hundreds. Cars lined up on the curb as far as I could see and a solid stream of them driving by. I needed to be somewhere and finally had to walk into the street and stop traffic so I could back out of my own damn driveway. Even then it took me several minutes to reach the end of the block a whole four houses down.

I'm in a family-friendly neighborhood so we usually have plenty of pre-adult critters. This year there were more. Lots more. Several orders of magnitude more. Figured out the church up the street had a multi-church Trunk-or-Treat they'd been advertising all over town. Successfully advertising, apparently. When it let out the crowd migrated to the nearest target of opportunity.

Brad

[41magsnub]

We had a small number of kids, in the 20's more or less.  The funniest one was the first kid, I hadn't locked up the dog yet so I was holding out the candy bowl since I only had one hand free.  The 4 year old kid just grinned at me and grabbed a big double handful of candy and bolted.   

[wmenorr67]

Not sure if any were in my neighborhood this year.  Usually only one or two will venture down my street.  First couple years we lived here we were all set up to dish out candy and only gave out a few pieces so we don't even try anymore.

This year we went to the liquor store and stocked up.

[HeroHog]

None this year but we had the porch light off as we had no treats anyway but that's never stopped them in the past. When my mom was alive and I was a kid, we were THE house to hit as we did it up big and scared the carp outta the kids. Mom dressed up as a witch, I dressed up as a corpse and laid out on the floor with a huge hunting knife stuck in a piece of wood under my shirt which was made to look like a bloody wound thanks to ketchup etc. When a kid would say "aw, it's just a dummy" I would groan and move and that would usually send them running. Dad would be in the washroom in the carport rattling chains and moaning while our dog, who was normally scary enough, strained at the end of his chain growling at the edge of the back door. Here's what mom looked like when she greeted kids at the door in 1970:

[MechAg94]

I've not given out candy in years..

Same here.  I left town to visit the parents so I didn't have to sit in the house with the outside lights off. 

In the past, there seem to have been thousands and 99% of them live no where nearby.  I have no issue with giving candy to kids from down the street (maybe 50 total?) , but I didn't sign up for supplying the half the city.  I drove back in town later about 10 PM.  It seemed that over half the houses had their outside lights out so I am far from alone in my view.  I guess I am just a cheap, grumpy old man.

[Perd Hapley]

Same here.  I left town to visit the parents so I didn't have to sit in the house with the outside lights off. 

In the past, there seem to have been thousands and 99% of them live no where nearby.  I have no issue with giving candy to kids from down the street (maybe 50 total?) , but I didn't sign up for supplying the half the city.  I drove back in town later about 10 PM.  It seemed that over half the houses had their outside lights out so I am far from alone in my view.  I guess I am just a cheap, grumpy old man.

Why do you hate the 99%?

[RocketMan]

Second year at our house in Hickory, NC.  Second year with zero trick-or-treaters.