Is anyone else appalled . . .

[thislazylife]

. . . by videos of kids trick r treating in the afternoon?

I've been getting geared up for The Big Night watching videos on youtube and I'm sick of seeing kids trick r treating in broad daylight. When I was a kid (the 70's) we weren't allowed to trick r treat during the day. People would actually turn you away back then, as least in the neighborhood where I grew up (Lomita, CA). I haunt my yard every year, and I always put up a sign "Not Open Til Dark".

Does anyone else feel the "daylighting" of Halloween is bulls@*t?

[neverendingwonder]

It's a different world than it was back then. I grew up in the 60s and 70s as well, and my fondest memories of Halloween were the throwing off of parental shackles and running around with my friends being scary creatures for one night.

Today, suggesting children should wander the streets by themselves is heresy to parents. The world is a much more paranoid place than it was back then, and many would say for good reason.

[Nostalgiascape]

In some ways we allow it to be a different world because the very small percentage of fear mongers expect us too.

[Pumpkin_Man]

Apalled?? Not at all. When I was a kid and went TOTing, I would put my costume on right after I got home from school, and would TOT to well after sun set. Then I would come home with a huge bag of candy, and then go to the Mt.Greenwod Park Halloween party & spook house.

And I was a kid back in the early 70s too. Halloweenof 1972 was the last year I TOTed.

Mike

[myteemouth]

Apalled?? Not at all. When I was a kid and went TOTing, I would put my costume on right after I got home from school, and would TOT to well after sun set. Then I would come home with a huge bag of candy, and then go to the Mt.Greenwod Park Halloween party & spook house.

And I was a kid back in the early 70s too. Halloweenof 1972 was the last year I TOTed.

Mike

[color=What's appalling is the world we live in --here TOT is usually between 6-8pm and it's usually pretty dark but it's just not safe to let them go out in the dark I hate that my daughter has very few of the freedoms I had in the 70's and 80's but I don't know what the answer is#00BF00][/color]

[Pumpkin_Man]

A lot of people don't even allow their kids to TOT at all because of all the fear mongering. But then, there are a lot of things to be afraid of. Kids today are up against all kinds of perverts these days.

Mike

[Shadow_of_the_31st]

It is just so much harder to scare kids in the daytime, a lot of my yards eeriness comes from the strobes i have strung through my yard. Plus now kids come out early and unfortunately i see my last trick or treater around 9:30 or earlier especially now that halloween is on a sunday this year.
but i understand why kids arent allowed to be trick or treating at night, to much danger, im 16 and my dad still doesnt like the idea of me walking around at night.

[MacPhantom]

They trick or treated during daylight hours in the movie Halloween....

[Andybev01]

...and Trick-R-Treat.

[Pumpkin_Man]

Well, I would like to see us return to a time when kids were not in danger just walking around their neighborhoods at night, and Halloween was a time of great fun that went on all night long.

Mike

[Spookymufu]

Mike, thats how it was when I was kid in the 70s, we all went out in groups of friends from school that lived in the neighborhood then ran around TOT'ing running into other schoolmates we knew having fun.........too bad the kids cant do that anymore.

[Andybev01]

Makes me think that the Zombie Apocalypse has already begun.

[myteemouth]

Well, I would like to see us return to a time when kids were not in danger just walking around their neighborhoods at night, and Halloween was a time of great fun that went on all night long.

Mike

So would I- It kills me to see my daughter not getting to do the stuff I used to do-for example Im 39, my brother is 4 years younger-when we were kids, he'd go off on his bike and wouldnt back til dinnertime-Id go to the pool in town at noon and wouldnt come home til like 9pm when it closed. You couldnt let your kids do that now-it's hardly safe to even let my daughter walk to her bus in the morning in the dark and she's 15. It's just not safe anymore.

[Pumpkin_Man]

I'm 50 years old. I TOTed until 1972. It was one of the greatest nights of the year for me, and the candy was ever so abundant. I would TOT until after 9, and then go to the Mt. Greenwood Park party for a great time at the biggest Halloween bash of the year. The good news was that I attended a Catholic school, so All Saints Day was a holiday for us. No school on Nov 1st, which was not hard to take at all.

Today, it seems that most communities have put time limits on TOTing. In my town it's strictly 3pm to 7pm. I have had a couple of stragglers come to my door after 7, and I allways gave them some candy, as I think time limits are a load of huey. But then I do realize that I just plain don't live in the same world I lived in back when I was TOTing, and kids are not safe these days.

Like I said, I would like to see things turn around before TOT is relagate totaly to History, and disappears completely from Halloween.

Mike

[writerpatrick]

I tend to find it's age related. The young ones go out around 6pm and they gradually get older until 9pm when they seem to stop. Older kids seem to prefer to wait until dark when it is scarier.

I don't think it's a bad idea for the small kids to get around early since they tend to have early bedtimes. Of course it's a poor idea to go around before 6pm because a lot of people aren't home from work yet.

What I find truly appalling are all those people who don't bother to decorate their homes for Halloween and don't even give out candy. It's understandable if they're just not home because they have to work but some people are just plain selfish. When I was a kid at least every other home gave out candy. Now you get whole blocks not participating.

It's heartbreaking for kids to spend time going from house to house not to get any answer and as more people don't participate then fewer kids will too.