Follow the Crowd

I’m a pretty easy going person by nature.  Live and let live and all that, but the most recent post at StraightDopeDad.com got me thinking. I wish more people would stop and consider why we follow certain social traditions. I know it’s early September, but I don’t think it’s too soon for me to go on about the holidays. Especially since the market where I shop put Halloween candy on the shelves two weeks ago.

If I could pick any one holiday and vote it off the island, Halloween would be it.


I get it that it’s fun for kids to dress up and go door to door collecting candy. I did it as a kid and my kids did it too. I’ll never forget the year it was pouring rain and my neighbor and I thought we were off the hook as far as taking the kids trick-or-treating. I decided to reason with the little ones. Good luck with that, Mom.

“Well guys, it’s raining. Your costumes will get all wet. Nobody will be out there tonight. The kids will all just eat the candy their parents bought to hand out.”


And then the doorbell started ringing.

Those were my single parent years – I couldn’t just delegate the task to my husband as I did shamelessly once he said “I do.” So I learned not to pray for rain on Halloween night and we all went along with the whole thing year after year – some of us more gleefully than others.

There were a couple of years when the kids had outgrown trick-or-treating, so we all just got in the car and went out to dinner that night. Then we’d browse at our local book store or maybe the mall and we’d all keep looking at the time, wondering if it was safe to go home yet. That wasn’t as enjoyable as I thought it would be.


So these days, we’re back to going along with the whole thing (just my husband and I,) although I do think it’s a bit odd when adults, some in costume and some not, show up at my door as proxy for their sick child. Or just dress up and trick-or-treat for themselves.

And I certainly don’t begrudge anyone a candy bar who drives their child to my neighborhood from the rural end of town because there are lots of houses close together and we have sidewalks. But couldn’t these visitors just park somewhere and walk the neighborhood like the residents do? No. They drive from house to house with their kids dashing in and out of the car. The traffic is horrendous. This goes on until we’ve seen 150+ trick-or-treaters and when it gets late and the goblins are taller than I am and probably have a part-time job and could buy their own candy at 50% off the next day, I’m all done.

Is there anyone else out there who'd like to see this one weeded out?


Cielle