Halloween isn't the same

originally posted by: underwerks
Even though we live in the safest time of our entire species, people let extreme fear rule their interactions with other. Everyone is a murderer or trying to give kids drugs.

Halloween PSA: no one likes your kids enough to give them free drugs.

Wrong. There are bad people who put drugs or other objects in candy. It's not common but it does happen. There are also sex offenders who prey on kids and what better time to be nice to them? Sorry buddy, stuff happens whether you believe it or not.

originally posted by: DictionaryOfExcuses
a reply to: JAGStorm

The wife was just telling me that churches in the area do something they are calling "Trunk or treat", where a bunch of kids go trick or treating from car to car in a parking lot. I mean wh

Nevermind. It's too early to get fired up like this.

A lot of towns are doing that too, ours has for the past few years. They block off a block of downtown with fire trucks and have a party for the kids.

what is this a social issue or some kind of weird nostalgia of the 1950's?

a reply to: toysforadults

1950s? What exactly is the point of your post?

a reply to: toysforadults

It’s a social issue because children miss out on a long tradition due to the sociopaths and what not out there today. So they will not have those experiences that we had. Meaning even if there was future return to normalcy their descendants still won’t experience it. A fundamental shared experience forever gone.

a reply to: HalWesten

Unpacking the Urban Legend

"I don’t see any evidence that this has actually happened. Now, you can’t prove that it’s never happened, of course. But this would be a big news story. If somebody got poisoned from poisoned Halloween candy and died, this would make national news," says Joel Best, Ph.D., author and professor in the University of Delaware’s Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice. 

None of the five deaths originally linked to Halloween sadism that Best found in his research were actually at the hand of some neighborhood psychopath handing out tainted treats. All were later attributed to other causes, a heart condition, for example, or a kid getting into his uncle’s heroin stash.

originally posted by: Ahabstar
a reply to: toysforadults

It’s a social issue because children miss out on a long tradition due to the sociopaths and what not out there today. So they will not have those experiences that we had. Meaning even if there was future return to normalcy their descendants still won’t experience it. A fundamental shared experience forever gone.

To be objective, modern American Halloween isn't really that old, and was bastardized from the Celts anyway, so it's not that longstanding of a tradition if we're looking at it's evolution & location stages individually. Trick-or-treating really only started in the...40's? My grandmother had remembered it cropping up out of nowhere when she was a kid, which was the 30's & 40's.

Let's say it's a 90 year old custom in it's current form. Not even a century old yet. It's still got growing pains time, and honestly, I see it blending a bit more with the Mexican Day of the Dead celebration (artistically speaking, DOTD is amazing on the eyes) before it's a settled country custom.

Fun Thread Jag.. lol...I longed for one of those cheap costumes ! Our Mom could sew and would do her best to make whatever costumes we asked for, God I Love her !

Halloween was a lot of fun back in the day, we still decorate for the few kids we get, don't even mind the teenagers who put little to no effort into a costume, as long as they are polite. Lights out at 9pm. LOL....my sister and I had quite a laugh when her son was little and didn't quite understand saying " Trick or Treat ", so he said " Put the candy in the Bag ! " She had to explain to him that wasn't polite and to say Thank-You, he grew up to be a wonderful young man, but boy that was Funny !

I Like to make friendly Pumpkins.

a reply to: Nyiah

Trick or Treat really caught on in the 1930’s with one of the big organizers being the Boy Scouts, with the same reasons in mind as the churches holding Trunk or Treat today. That to keep kids safe from the mischief that went on performed by bad adults. In the 1930’s gangster and the KKK. Today, gangs and crazy people, mostly.

We may come full circle to Halloween only being private costume parties by invitation only like colonial times up until the early 1900’s. As to why Beggar’s Night caught on? Free candy to kids in the Great Depression? That wasn’t hard to sell the idea to the kids.

a reply to: JAGStorm

When I was a kid, I would stay up till midnight, or 2 am sometimes playing hide and go seek at night or all kinds of things. At night is the best time to play, one time I was wearing all green, we were playing in a field, I literally just laid down face first in the grass and watched my friend walk right by me, looking for people.

Then we would get up to all kinds of stuff, one time even with a pellet gun on the water tower, pelleting things till they called the cops. And more then a few things, kids were always outside and always up to something. Not to sure about these days though, I know on average I did not come back home till feeding time, or either watch new episodes of ninja turtles, or likely when it got dark, and then not always that early.

And then there was ol hollows eve. Fun times, lots of candy, every year dressed as a ninja or something similar. Now a days, dont see much of that. But then again, kind of in the boonies a bit, I don't think anybody would want to be out here in the middle of the night, no tricker treaters around my area since I moved here.

But ya! Halloween ain't what it used to be. Kids dont seem to play much outside anymore either. Everybody has just gotten lamer and lamer it seems.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I believe you, but it hasn't changed much by me. Except that the weather has been crappy for probably 20 of the past 25 years. It used to be nice most years. Exceot the one time it snowed, which its going to do tomorrow here

a reply to: dogstar23

Where I am now almost all the trick or treating is done by the time the sun goes down. Maybe only 4 or 5 get here after. Usually 7pm it's done. I never even started until the sun went down. Me and my friends ran around town with a pillow case filling that sucker up for hours, probably got home a little after 10.

a reply to: Nyiah

I don't disagree. I am just saying it used to be such a fun time as a kid, and all the things that I have the fondest memories of it are gone or going. It was such a magical night, now it is over before it even gets dark. Fewer and fewer kids are doing it as more and more are doing trunk or treat parties.

I am just sad they won't get the experiences I did. I am sure they will have fun, but they won't know what they missed out on.

originally posted by: toysforadults
what is this a social issue or some kind of weird nostalgia of the 1950's?

A little of both. We can see how social issues such as safety, changing attitudes about identity, and technology
can change things such as trick or treating in a little as one generation.

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
I am just saying it used to be such a fun time as a kid...

Well, yeah.

• We didn't have to work
  
• We didn't have to pay bills
  
• Someone washed our clothes
  
• Someone cooked our food
  
• The holidays were actually fun for us
  
• We didn't have a mother in law
  
• We could commit crimes and not be sentenced as adults

originally posted by: dogstar23
a reply to: JAGStorm

I believe you, but it hasn't changed much by me. Except that the weather has been crappy for probably 20 of the past 25 years. It used to be nice most years. Exceot the one time it snowed, which its going to do tomorrow here

Would people be OK if someone dressed in blackface?
Would people be OK if you let your 8 year old trick or treat past 9pm by themselves

Just think about those two things alone.

originally posted by: spiritualarchitect
Too much violence in our country has ruined a holiday about evil.

Halloween has NOTHING to do with evil!!!!! Absolutely nothing about Halloween is evil, NOTHING!

I did not know about the buckets colored to allergy free or whatever. I guess now they have to comply with organic grass fed vegan and methane free so trick or treaters don’t affect climate change.
Yes I remember those days, when the only hold up was if it was going to rain and be cold. I remember smoke from people burning leaves and painted windows. Everything is corporate now so nobody wants to mess up the perfect look. There are still some holdovers where people have parties or hang out in the town square, the day when even adults get to be what they want vicariously. I’ve been to a few dance parties over the years and I’ve even skipped out entirely. The innocence is gone though and now we have people outing spells on our President and Commander in Chief. That is one of the saddest things.

originally posted by: mblahnikluver
Halloween has NOTHING to do with evil!!!!! Absolutely nothing about Halloween is evil, NOTHING!

I can fix that...

a reply to: Ahabstar

Our forecast is calling for 36° and 25 mph winds. I got at 5 this morning to take my pups out to eat and potty. I walk outside and immediately get smacked by 20 mph winds and a temp of 42°. Uhhh yeah, nope. Y'all are on your own this time. I'll be back in 20.