Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Happy Halloween!

What will you be doing this Halloween?

I'll be handing out candy to the half a dozen kids that make their way to my home. We used to get more trick or treaters, but the numbers have really dropped off in the last few years.

Whatever you do, please stay safe and keep the holiday fun for all.

Update - 11/1/2007 - 12:29 AM
Guess what...I didn't have ANY trick or treaters tonight. Pathetic! I suppose it didn't help that my house appeared to be the only one on the whole street that was giving out candy...bunch of cheapskates. Oh well, I hope the kids had fun at the Alerus Center. Still, nothing can quite compare to going trick or treating door to door...those were the days, huh?

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah it's sad....darn Treat Street steals all the little kiddies away! The past two years I have bought only one small bag of candy, and haven't had more than a handful of kids stop by....Not like when I was little!

Anonymous said...

Same here... we only get a handful of kids at best. But I blame our poorly lit street & the number of neighbors that don't give out candy. But in the end, more chocolate for me!

Anonymous said...

My church started doing trick-or-treating at the church a few years back. We all meet at the church for soup and pie. We all dress up if we want to, but no one wears a mask. After dinner, families and youth choose classrooms, and the children come trick-or-treating all the way around the church. It's warm, it's friendly and it's fun. We're looking forward to tonight! Happy Halloween, everyone!

Anonymous said...

I just dropped my kid off at school. They're having a "Harvest Pajama Party" today. The Halloween Party fell victim to the P.C.ers out there. I just don't understand it. Does anyone who supports eliminating this exciting holiday for children care to take a whack at explaining this logic? I just don' get it.

Anonymous said...

People who are ignorant about the real story of Halloween are "scared" that it's an "evil" holiday. Ah yes, gotta love these fanatics that latch onto a cause and aren't smart enough to thoroughly research what it is they're against.

Anonymous said...

My kid's kindergarten couldn't do anything Halloween-related because of the Jehovah's Witness kid in the class, not because of some make believe left wing conspiracy.

Anonymous said...

"Jehovah's Witness kid in the class"

Man they complain a bunch... we had a few that griped about holiday parties when I was in elementary school. If you have a problem with your kid attending the party, just take them home that day. Why ruin it for the rest of kids?

Anonymous said...

Yeah, don't blame PC-ers on this one. Try the religious right and their ilk. I can hear the conversation in the principal's office: "If we can't sing "Silent Night" we won't let you pagans dress up for Halloween."

elucidarian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
elucidarian said...

You gotta watch out fer them creatures comin' outta Hell on All Hallow's Eve. Only way to fend 'em off is ter trick 'em inta thinken yer's one of 'em. All those poor kiddies gotta walk in the dangerous dark cuz their folks is ignorant. It's an outrage!

Amy said...

I'm taking my four-year-old daughter door-to-door. That Treat Street crap is just that. "Why, when I was a kid, I had to hike through knee-deep snow..." Oh wow, I've turned into my dad.

Anonymous said...

up to 7 trick-o-treaters tying last year's count.

Anonymous said...

First Halloween in Grand Forks... I just ran out of candy! I thought 4 bags would have been enough. Hope everyone has a fun rest of the night!
Best costume that came to my door was a transformer. It looked great!
-JD

Anonymous said...

We typically get tons of kids, last night was a dissappointment. I also vow never to take my son to treat streat after waiting in line last night for an hour and a half. It was a big disappointment

Anonymous said...

We typically get tons of kids, last night was a dissappointment. I also vow never to take my son to treat streat after waiting in line last night for an hour and a half. It was a big disappointment

Anonymous said...

screw the alerus...peopel shoudl do ti the old way. I remember walking in knee deep snow trick or treating ands tealing other kids candy and scaring teh livin shit out of the littl e kids.

Anonymous said...

total count for a household near the historic district downtown was 13 trick-o-treaters.

Anonymous said...

Looks like illiterate drunk boy is posting again. Tell me you're kidding.

Anonymous said...

We will not be going to the Alerus next year. We got there about 4:45 (it started at 5) and only had to wait in line about 20 minutes. The people giving out the candy were really nice & sweet to our daughter, but the experience just wasn't the same as going door to door. We went there last year too because our daughter was only 2 & it was really cold, but I think next year she will just have to earn her trick-or-treating stripes like the rest of us and go door to door. Several times my daughter wanted to leave the line and wander around, but I had to remind her to pretend she was a cow and stay with the herd. I realized how sad that was & I will never do that again. I don't blame other families for going there, but I'd rather make it to only 10 houses rather than a place where memories are unnecessary.

Anonymous said...

Door to Door is the way to go! We got over 100 kids at our house, but then again almost every light within a two block radius was on until at least 8:30. I think as a parent I personally feel more comfortable going to the neighborhoods where the majority of the people are participating.

Last year in our old neighborhood it was more like 20 kids.

elucidarian said...

It's time to pack away our fears and laziness and take our kids out door-to-door. We had far too low a count this year at our door, but I attribute that the lack of good decorating; we only carved three pumpkins - no lights, candles, sound effects, statuettes, etc.

Taking my kids down a few blocks was a different story. The 800 block of Oak did a pretty decent job of getting the scare out. They were bolstered by 802 which had a spectacular yard full of pumpkins in a wide variety of carvings, inflatable decor, lights and sounds to boot. And it appears people notice. There were many T-or-T's running around. I imagine it's like Christmas time, when families pack into a vehicle to seek out the wondrous glow of winter holiday cheer wherever people took the time to set up something nice, only on Halloween, you stop and go up those people's doors and ask for candy.

Really, they should award homes for Halloween decorating, just like they do at Christmas time. It might encourage more people to join in.

dale said...

We had a couple dozen kids or so, but live in a bizarre location in an out of the way neighbourhood, so it's never been more that in the ten years I've been there.

Best costumes, by far, was a group of four girls (about 12 years old, I'd guess) dressed as the four main characters in The Wizard of Oz. High quality, hand made costumes, too, not just a flannel shirt with hay sticking out for the Scarecrow.

Anonymous said...

OK, I had one (1) at my apartment. (I live in Bloomington, MN, near the MOA.) But a friend's (W. so Dale knows who it is) sister, who lives in Brainerd, usually gets around 300 kids each year.

Maybe GF has gotten a little too big...

GJB

Anonymous said...

I loved halloween this year, we live near elks pool had tons of kids that were actually dressed up, unlike some of the years we spent in apartments. And a group of people even came around collecting food for the salvation army, how great is that!?