Trick or Treaters

I've always had a fondness for Halloween; last year I even blogged about the time I went trick or treating in July.

I grew up in suburban Long Island, where as a kid Halloween was all about getting candy from as many houses as we could. We weren't trickers, we were all about the treat. We wound up with pillowcases stuffed with candy.

But nowadays, it seems that too much fear has set in. Nevermind that there aren't any confirmable stories of razor blades in candy or costumed kids being snatched off the streets.

In the 9 Halloweens that I've had in the Los Angeles area, in various apartments, I've had maybe 20 total trick or treaters knock on my door.

Last night was a relatively good Halloween; we actually had 8 people knock on the door of our complex, and some were adorable.

But 8. Come on. That's nothing. We still have a bowl of candy sitting here that I can't eat.

It's better than last year, when we had no one knock on our door. This year, the complex sent around a piece of paper that to post on your door/window about whether you had candy. It's orange, you can't miss it, and we're in a fairly high-traffic area of the complex.

I was convinced that this was the turning point. So I bought a lot of candy, just to be sure.

8 kids came by.

And I couldn't help but notice that most of my neighbors either didn't put the sign up at all, or put up the "sorry, no candy" side of the sign.

I get that a lot of parents would rather take their kids to safe parties than turn them loose in the neighborhood or (god forbid) actually go trick or treating with their kids. I guess you can argue that most kids can do without the sugar. Maybe safety is an issue in some neighborhoods; I don't know.

But it just seems a shame that this fun, essential kid-thing of my youth is being lost.

Did anyone see a good number of trick-or-treaters last night?

Stories, please.