The Spirit of Halloween

Giving out candy for Halloween provides for a week’s worth of people watching compressed into a couple of hours. In our neighborhood, we’ve been given the reputation as a Trick-or-Treater’s paradise.

The homes are close together, the front porches are only a couple of feet from the sidewalks, and the area is well-lit—I could count 12 street lights visible from the front of the house when we moved in.

In addition to the family-filled neighborhood’s kids, kids come to our neighborhood from all over Austin, especially our surrounding eastside community. Over the course of about a two and a half-hour window, we had 1,173 candy seekers come to their house, often with a parent or two. That is not a typo. 1,173. Last year, in a similar timeframe, we had ~850.

As the girls and I handed out candy, I was struck that virtually all of them were well-mannered, appreciative, sweet kids. Since we have so many visitors, we give out only one piece of candy—it might be a Snickers mini or the smallest size of Tootsie Roll. Virtually none expressed dissatisfaction nor try to get more candy.

There were lines during the peak periods. Most waited patiently, even when a mom pushed her kid up to the door in a stroller, then needed everyone in line to move out-of-the-way so she could get back out.

All in all, an impressive sight made me happy about the next generation.

The troublemakers, if you will, were few. They pushed past my girls (who were the ones who actually gave out the candy) to get to the candy bowl. Some reached their hand into the bowl. Some waited after one piece expecting more. One wanted to barter for a different piece of candy. A few walked through the flowerbed to bypass the line and get straight to the porch.

How was your Halloween experience? Walked the neighborhood or held the fort at home?