Happy Halloween Everyone!

[Murfreesboro]

I don't think country places are good for TOT, and I don't think upscale neighborhoods are good for it. The best party streets in our town are in modest neighborhoods, where people still have young kids (or maybe grandkids) and go all-out for various holidays. In the pricier neighborhoods, people feel they are above "tacky" decorations. They don't even do that much for Christmas. Maybe in some cases they aren't even allowed to go OTT, due to neighborhood association agreements.

The one exception to this rule in our town is the historic district, which runs on Main Street east of the town square. Kids are encouraged to TOT at stores on the square, and then they walk down Main Street past all the antebellum homes, etc. Some of those people really do put on the dog for the kids. I think they regard it as a kind of noblesse oblige, because they are generally quite affluent homeowners, but many of the kids who TOT there come from the neighborhoods a block or two off Main, some of which are kind of run-down. You know how gentrification works in any town--the glorious old restored homes sit shoulder-to-shoulder with the low-rent district.