Trick or Treat

[PurpleChez]

OK. This has absolutely nothing to do with the election. Or politics. But I'd like to hear from anyone who has an opinion.

When I was a kid in Pennsylvania, trick or treat was something for little kids in costumes. The last time I went I was 13 (this was 1979), and I ended up feeling a little self conscious. No one -- NO ONE -- in high school went trick or treating. NO ONE.

My first Halloween after moving to Georgia (1998) I was amazed (that is to say, pissed off) at the number of surly, uncostumed teenagers roaming the town with shopping bags, expecting folks to load them up with candy. The natives didn't seem to think there was anything odd about this, but for Bobbi and me it blew our minds. Since then, other people have told me that it's that way in their area too -- trick or treat now includes high school kids in jeans and hoodies out prowling for free candy. I swear...if one of my high school classmates had been "caught" trick or treating, they'd still be getting razzed for it, twenty-plus years later. In general, kids get more sophisticated as time passes -- superficially at least. But this goes in the opposite direction. How did it become cool to revert to the world of eight year olds? What goes in your neck of the woods?

[Monkeyman]

1. No one goes door to door here Lions club has a party