Weird Halloween.
For the three years that we’ve lived in Tennessee we have trick-or-treated, in our neighborhood. It is a very “kid friendly” neighborhood, with lots of lit homes, and kids out trick or treating.
This year, I didn’t get the memo apparently, because when we returned home from dinner to trick or treat, the neighborhood was dark, and empty. We turned down our street, which was also dark and empty. Spooky….
We wandered through the neighborhood for a few hours, looking for the few homes with lit porches, and for any sign of our friends. There were barely any people out- and it was only 7 pm! There were literally 4 different people who said, “oh good, trick or treaters! Where is everyone this year?” – so it wasn’t just me that noticed this.
We had fun nonetheless. I didn’t get any good pictures of the full on costumes but here they are:
~Blue: “Mummy.” I sewed strips of a white sheet to a shirt and pants, and sprayed it with glow in the dark spray. I wrapped strips around his head, which lasted a whole 5 minutes. I put white makeup around his eyes, and it actually made him look pretty… don’t tell him.
~Cooper: The traditional gorilla costume I got for Blue when he was that age, and each boy has worn it once.
~Aiden: “Bob the builder”- he was supposed to be “Diego,” but changed his mind at the last minute.
~Me: “Mama and baby jaguar.” From Diego. (couldn’t let a good gag gift go to waste)
*So was there a trick or treating strike this year, or was it just my neighborhood? How was your halloween?
November 1st, 2008 at 11:08 am
You guys live in the same area as our small group leaders. I had to work late, but my wife went over to their house to hang out with them and help hand out candy (we live sort of in the country outside Spring Hill, and don’t get any trick-or-treaters at our house).
So my wife and our friends said all the children collected candy early this year — by 7:00PM it slowed to a crawl, and there were only a few trick-or-treaters after that. I’m thinking the city must have recommended earlier times for the trick-or-treating, like right when it starts to get dark. Probably for safety reasons, and to make it so that everyone knows the set times to expect trick-or-treaters so you won’t be getting people at your door at unusual or late hours.
I’m also thinking that there are lots of organizations like churches or community/civic clubs that are holding their Halloween festivities at specific places around town, instead of kids going door to door.
When we lived in California, our church always had a huge Halloween thing with bounce houses, activities, games, prizes and lots of candy. So parents would dress the kids up in costumes, spend the whole evening at one place (the church), and the kids would have even more fun than they would have just walking door to door. And they still ended up with a big bag full of candy.
I’m like you — always associate Halloween with dressing up and going door to door. Next year, you might consider checking in the local papers for announcements about where there are activities happening, and try attending those. I bet that’s where all the “missing people” were this year.
November 1st, 2008 at 7:18 pm
I’m sorry that happened,babe. We did the usual, went to Parkside Church for the hot dogs, games and candy with Erin and Harold and kids. We spent a lot of time with Yuki, Matt and the boys.
When we got there, we remember Blue in the duck costume that year and missed you all terribly.
I love you all…Mom
November 1st, 2008 at 11:21 pm
How weird, we live in a older neighborhood, so we did not trick or treat here. We went to our friends and got lots of great goodies! H
November 7th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
I read in the paper that there was a community that officially changed the trick-or-treating to November 1st because they were afraid of the kids being out in Friday night traffic. Strange.
November 14th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
I live in a neighborhood of about 250 houses.
The neighborhood posted a trick or treat rule. Kids could only knock on doors from 5 pm – 7 pm.