Is Halloween anyone else’s favorite holiday?

[Just Jack]

5 hours ago, Sweats said:

At our old house, we were the only ones on the street that would give out candy, so kids avoided our street like the plague. I mean, a kid's ultimate goal is to get as much candy as possible in the shortest amount of time, so coming anywhere near my neighborhood with only one house giving out candy when 15 others weren't, was just not fiscally sound to a kid.

 

So, one year we would have 2 kids, the next we might get 4......that is a complete waste of time by anyone's standards.

 

At this new house, i have no idea how many kids are coming and going down the block cause i shut all the lights off and do the old "if i don't see you, you're not there" trick.

 

We had 3 this year,  the neighbors from across the street.  Saw about another 10 walk by our house but never came to the door, even though we had the light on and front door open, so we could watch.  And we were giving out full size bars.  We can see two other side streets from our front porch, saw plenty of kids over there.  Gave up after 7:30.  

 

 

4 hours ago, Augie said:

My wife thinks I’m strange because I have almost zero interest in candy or desserts. Halloween may be the reason for that.

 

We didn’t get pieces of candy, we measured it more by the pound. We’d fill up pillow cases and garbage bags until they couldn’t hold any more, then stash them in the bushes and carry on with a fresh bag. We were surrounded by easy mark townhouses and even better, garden apartments. We’d ring all 8 doorbells and half of us would start upstairs and the other half down. It was an operation. 

 

Both apartments I lived in when I was younger, I was prepared, thinking like you, it would be the most doors with least travel.  Not a single kid came by, and I knew there were some in the other apartment buildings.  

Edited yesterday at 01:20 AM by Just Jack

[BADOLBILZ]

9 hours ago, Another Fan said:

You get to dress up and eat candy.  And since I don’t have kids of my own this is my chance to exposed of kids today giving out chocolate.  
 

Plus people are usually in a little better of a mood.  

 

It certainly a hell of a lot better to me than Thanksgiving or Christmas with family drama.  It does not help at all it’s an election year! 

 

 

Yes and it's been since I was around 6 or 7 years old.   Just having a holiday where you didn't have to go to church and eat greasy goose at some old relatives house made up for the lack of "gifts".  Now I enjoy making it a fun time for the kids.   I buy 20 of those big bags of candy from Costco and have the animatronics and 12' skeletons and such.  We get about 300 kids each at 2 different houses and hopefully they have good memories and pass the fun forward when they get older.  But as a kid myself I mostly enjoyed the danger of it.   It was a real accomplishment to get thru the night uninjured and/or with all of your candy.   You don't get that feeling from getting a bunch of toys.  I am pretty sure the people who wrote those "Purge" movies must have grown up with 70's and 80's Halloween's.   

[Saxum]

One time when I was a kid there was a house with an old man (never did his name and I knew most in neighborhood) at end of the street at edge of neighborhood.  His light was on and when I knocked he looked surprised and was smiling.  "Hold on" he said and he dumped a bowl of candy in my bag.  When I got to well lit place where I sorted the candy I was going to keep and the candy which would go in family bin and I tried one of the wrapped chocolates which had (German?) writing on them and found they were filled with liquor (rum).  These I not only kept but I hid before I got home.  I brought one to school and asked a teacher what the writing was and told me it was European, likely German, Bavarian, Austrian or from Liechtenstein.  He asked if he could have one and I said yes.  Next time he saw me he said it was Schriftdeutsch or Swiss High German and mark said it was from Switzerland.  He asked where I got it from and I told him honestly and he said this was handmade chocolate and take care of it so it does not get to moist or dry.  I gave him a few pieces and thanked him.

 

I saw the man occasionally mowing his lawn with hand mower and helped him cutting it. He offered me ice tea heavily sweetened and spiced for my trouble.  I saw service awards and metals in a glass case in his kitchen.  He evidently knew very little English and I heard later he moved to US post WWI with his daughter and she moved out when she got married.   New people lived in the house after three years but never heard whether he died, moved in with daughter or a retirement home.

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

10 hours ago, Another Fan said:

You get to dress up and eat candy.  And since I don’t have kids of my own this is my chance to exposed of kids today giving out chocolate.  
 

Plus people are usually in a little better of a mood.  

 

It certainly a hell of a lot better to me than Thanksgiving or Christmas with family drama.  It does not help at all it’s an election year! 

i have noticed for a lot of adults who don’t have kids or who have kids that are grown and out of the house, they seem to love Halloween.

 

we have a neighbor who is in her 50s with no kids and she goes all out. Has these 50-foot goblins, etc in the yard, and was out tonight so excited to give candy away, etc. 

[US Egg]

Happens every year:

 

[Another Fan]

12 hours ago, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

i have noticed for a lot of adults who don’t have kids or who have kids that are grown and out of the house, they seem to love Halloween.

 

we have a neighbor who is in her 50s with no kids and she goes all out. Has these 50-foot goblins, etc in the yard, and was out tonight so excited to give candy away, etc. 

your man was one of those as well.

 

Kept pumpkins and dressed Daniel in that shower costume 😅.

 

Yeah I definitely get grouchier around Christmas.  Perhaps since we don’t have kids of our own a lot Christmas stuff comes off way too commercialized?  

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

42 minutes ago, Another Fan said:

your man was one of those as well.

 

Kept pumpkins and dressed Daniel in that shower costume 😅.

 

Yeah I definitely get grouchier around Christmas.  Perhaps since we don’t have kids of our own a lot Christmas stuff comes off way too commercialized?  

On that subject, one of my boys was Daniel in the shower and the other was Johnny in the skeleton costume last night. 

[Augie]

Our last house in Florida was in a community that goes ALL OUT for Halloween. It was a country club community with 36 holes of golf. They would use all their golf carts, plus bring in a couple more trucks full of carts and that’s how people get around (it’s a big community). Many people also own their own carts.  Hundreds of people all gathered for the best party in town! 

 

Nobody rings your doorbell. If you want visitors you set up a station in the driveway by the road. One station might have Snickers bars, and the next might be a taco station and Coronas with a live band in the driveway. The guy across the street was a retired engineer and converted his 3 car garage into a house of horrors with unbelievable production! It wasn’t just people in coffins trying to scare you with a BOO! They have what feels like a real elevator that seems to be falling from up high with a fast scrolling view ending with a THUMP! I have no idea how they did it. 🤷‍♂️

 

At a certain time the roads are deserted as everyone goes to the clubhouse for DJ’s and costume contests. When we moved in there someone mentioned how much we’d enjoy Halloween there, which seemed like an odd thing to say. After the first year, I got it. That was my kind of Halloween! 

[yall]

Thanksgiving/Christmas all day long for me.

[Saxum]

15 minutes ago, Augie said:

Our last house in Florida was in a community that goes ALL OUT for Halloween. It was a country club community with 36 holes of golf. They would use all their golf carts, plus bring in a couple more trucks full of carts and that’s how people get around (it’s a big community). Many people also own their own carts.  Hundreds of people all gathered for the best party in town! 

 

Golf balls scare me.  I worked near a golf course and was almost hit by balls several times. Once a ball hit me and a guy in a ridiculous outfit came over and asked if I saw a ball and I said yea it hit me.  Without a beat he asked where it is, hit the ball back across the street to course and thanked me for saving me a stroke.

[Augie]

1 minute ago, Saxum said:

 

Golf balls scare me.  I worked near a golf course and was almost hit by balls several times. Once a ball hit me and a guy in a ridiculous outfit came over and asked if I saw a ball and I said yea it hit me.  Without a beat he asked where it is, hit the ball back across the street to course and thanked me for saving me a stroke.

 

I’ve lived on three golf courses, and I am familiar with the potential hazard. The people next door were part time residents and we went regularly check to see if their dining room window had been broken. Again. That same course has a PGA tournament and my wife’s cousin came to visit to see it. He got hit TWICE on the same day by PGA golfers. The first time was on the fly, then one bounced off the cart path and hit him. Imagine the damage the average hack could do! I was leaving for work one morning and a guy was using a club to try to retrieve his ball from under my car in FRONT of the house. 

[BringBackFergy]

No