Trick or treating on a weekend afternoon is just lame. Scary is part of the point!

We've had oodles of trick or treaters tonight in the new place. It's the first time we've actually had to give away the candy instead of eating it ourselves (darn it).

I saw some trick or treaters in my neighborhood tonight, but they never stop by my apt. They usually only hit single family homes. I stopped buying candy a long time ago. Except of course for myself.

Believe me, as a kid I loved trick or treating after dark. But I understand the whole safety concepts behind doing it in daylight hours.

I want to live in a nonsuburban neighborhood that does TOT. I loves thems kiddums. That is actually one thing that has kept me here, a neighbor with teenage great-grandkids I've watched grow up and who dote on my cat.

And please stop mentioning kitties. I'm in fret mode towards the tortie. Born of MY first cat (Sky- he put up with a toddler's handling and was so protective and lovey to me) getting hit in front of my house when I was 9, partly. t she's taken care of her kitten. She can take care of herself. I'm just biased towards house cats being preferred.

Why did I eat chex mix? It tears the hell out of my mouth.

When I was little, we went with grownups. The little kids I saw out tonight were with grownups. Ringing a stranger's doorbell, if that's what you're doing, isn't any more safe at 5 than at 6:30, IMO. Of course, most of the trick or treating I've seen in places I've lived recently was to stores, not houses.

The grownups always trailed us from about 5 until 9 (mostly my dad's students near 9. And they came in to drink.) On our street, we knew everyone, even the Reverend, the likely dealer. The scariest house was Mrs. Olson's. Because she was all mean and cranky and Getoffamylawn! But she did give the best candy.

We always did the round of relatives' houses, not having a neighborhood to speak of.

That may be why I don't have the deep-seated Halloween-love.

It's not the ringing the doorbells that the light, or lack there of, makes the difference. It's walking down streets in dark costumes with possible visibilty issues due to masks and kids being in a rush to get from house to house so they can hit as many as possible before the hours are officially over. I went out to pick up the final pieces of my costume during trick or treating Saturday and had a couple kids run right out across the road at an intersection where I had no stop sign, but thankfully I was intentionally driving slowly and saw them in plenty of time to stop.

My BFF's kid is afflicted with the [family name] Head. They all have ENORMOUS heads, as in she can't wear a baseball cap. the kid was born with a hole in his intestine (he's fine now), and was once measured 40th percentile for weight and 97th percentile for head size. Why do I bring this up? Because they dressed him as a pumpkin for Halloween, but he had no stem, because the cap wouldn't fit on his head.