Halloween

[mirkwood]

[anatess2]

I'm going to use this thread to complain about this year's Halloween.

My husband is one of those people who love the fun stuff of Halloween - getting into costumes, handing out candy, etc.  He always volunteers for the ward trick-or-treat activity.  This year, he decided to do a Star Wars Themed trick-or-treat room.  Well, actually he took 2 rooms with a connecting door.  He decorated one side as the "rebel base" and the other side as the "Sith lair".  He went all out with the lights, the sounds, the wall covers, the controlled fog that he made sure did not trip the smoke detectors... so then he dressed me up as Leia and I was supposed to take the kids through the rebel base, give them instructions on CTR - light vs dark - and give them a choice of plastic lightsabers and they then go to the Sith lair and fight the Sith to get to the candy on the way out the door.  It was really fun and we had kids as young as 2 and as old as 80 go through the room and have fun play fighting on the lightsabers, my husband pretends to get defeated and they go running for the candy.  But then, there's this 11-year-old kid who went through and was just not satisfied smacking plastic, he started smacking my husband's head with the hard pommel of the plastic toy!  My husband took his saber and then pretended to be defeated so he starts "falling down" and the kid punched and kicked him in the face screaming!  He was like the demon-child!  So, I rush him out the door, gave him a stern talking to, and gave him his candy.  I was this kids' bear den leader so I'm not a stranger to giving him a stern talking to.  But he's always been this mild mannered kid who just doesn't follow instructions very well.  His mom is the Primary President so we talked a lot about his progress in scouts.  Anyway, a few minutes later, he tries to go through the room again and I told him no, you've been through here and I can't trust you to behave, and he says but I want to be the Sith and fight the kids... and I told him no no, you're not doing that for sure.  So he leaves the room and SNEAKS through the exit and goes and beats up my husband again!  Man, my husband lost patience (I've never seen him lose patience with kids - he's been 11-year-old scout leader for 7 years and the scout master for another 5, he's had his share of rambunctious kids and he's always had that firm but gentle hand with them.)... I had to rush in-between to give my husband time to compose himself before addressing the kid.  Ruined the day for him.  He had so much fun with the entire thing...

So then yesterday, he did the Sith decor again on our front door - just had his jiujitsu dummy dressed in his Sith costume sitting by the front door with the eerie music and lightshow and fog hiding the candy... and he sat there in regular clothes with a 4-foot ball python wrapped around his neck to greet the kids and help them with the candy.  He had so much fun talking to everybody who came by, admiring their costumes, having those brave enough to hold the snake and take pictures, etc. etc.  So then he had to go to the bathroom and on his way back he saw 4 teen-agers wreck the display and grab all the candy.  Our front door is all glass so you can see them and they can see us inside and they still did that!  My husband opened the door and they ran off.  He was wanting to chase after them but then decided, what's the point?  So, he packed up the stuff and we went inside and watched a scary movie.

It's such a let down how we have these stupid kids.  I'd like to blame the parents but in the case of the Primary President, she's the sweetest lady and I just can't understand how she ended up with that violent child.  I'm thinking he might have an undiagnosed mental health problem.

[The Folk Prophet]

7 hours ago, anatess2 said:

It's such a let down how we have these stupid kids.  I'd like to blame the parents but in the case of the Primary President, she's the sweetest lady and I just can't understand how she ended up with that violent child.  I'm thinking he might have an undiagnosed mental health problem.

Possibly. But being "sweet" as you know, is not the end all to raising a child well.  Not that I'm saying she isn't. Just...you never know what's really going on in other's homes.

As to the mental health problem... maybe. But we tend to jump to that with kids too soon methinks. My mom tells me a story of how one time in church I ran up to one of the church leaders and punched them as hard as I could and then ran away. Why? I have no idea. I was a dumb kid and did dumb things for dumb reasons. Did I have mental health problems? Some A.D.D., sure...(when I was a kid we just called it "being bad")...but not really. I was just a dumb kid and I had my days.

Not that I'm suggesting this kid does or does not have issues. How would I know? I'm just chattin'.

Edited November 2, 2018 by The Folk Prophet

[Fether]

Halloween is my least favorite holiday. I actually forgot about until the day before and was very disappointed that I couldn’t work into the evening because it was Halloween.

[mirkwood]

6 hours ago, Fether said:

Halloween is my least favorite holiday. I actually forgot about until the day before and was very disappointed that I couldn’t work into the evening because it was Halloween.

Ban this one.

[Guest MormonGator]

3 hours ago, mirkwood said:

Ban this one.

What is worse-liking Kiss or not liking Halloween? 

[NeuroTypical]

I dearly love Halloween.  It's not the day I cut loose, it's that the rest of the year I have to keep it reigned in.  

But dang - one trunk-or-treat some kid from across the street tried to do a snatch-and-grab less than 8 inches away from me.  I can count on one hand the number of times I was almost angered to violence - that was one of them.  

The other 99.8% of Halloween just rocks.  

Edited November 2, 2018 by NeuroTypical

[Iggy]

Since living here in my corner of the world since 1978 - the only place that got hit by the kids is a small locked gate community and the street it is on. Those poor people really got hit by the kids. NOT vandalism but by sheer numbers. In 1979 husband #1 and I rented a house in this gated community.  I was also very inactive, we owned a tavern in town. The population in the town was 972+2.

I bought three bags of wrapped candy, put a pumpkin cut-out on our front door, and taped halloween decorations on the front window. We also strung rope lights on either side of our walkway to prevent falling accidents. When I ran out of candy - I turned off all the lights, called hubby at the tavern and he said that he was swamped with customers, please come and help.

Within 35 minutes the candy was gone. I had been warned to only give out ONE piece so that it could go farther. I did. When we got home at 3:30 AM our house & free standing garage had been egged, TP'd and our windows sprayed with colored hair spray!! Just because we weren't there to pass out candy!

That year one elderly couple did an actual head count of trick-or-theaters at his house. He had 6 bags of candy and ran out. He counted 1,002 kids. So the next year, he and his wife sat out in costume under the shelter of his decorated garage. They asked each kid where they lived. Turns out they were coming from everywhere. 5 towns around ours. At the next town council, he asked the attendees if they had gotten swamped by all of these out of town kids? Those who lived on the street their gated community adjoined and the little UN gated community next to them did get hit. AND if they ran out of candy, they had to sit outside to prevent the older kids [teens] from egging and tp-ing their homes.

So from them on, the local banks held a Halloween Deposit/Withdrawal to help those hardest hit. Those who got no kids at their doors were asked to deposit bag of candy- then those who lived in the hardest hit areas could withdrawal bags. All they needed to do was show an electric bill to prove where they lived and then they were allowed to withdraw no more than 5 bags. OR if they had Oregon State Trail card(our version of food stamps) then they could withdraw up to 10 bags.

Because kids were coming from all over, our local city police called on citizen's to help patrol the areas and instead of arresting the kids with the colored hair spray, tp, eggs, they were to spray PAINT their backs - then when our city cops spotted them, THEY arrested them for vandalism. With-in three years the way-ward teens had grown up WITH OUT passing down their *craft*.

This Deposit/Withdrawal went on until last year. The previous two years, the parents and the home occupants of the heavy hit area decided to gather up their children and bus them to the other towns to trick or treat. Started at 4 pm at the farthest town north with taking the kids through Arctic Circle for a quick dinner. Then they hit nearly all of the communities - especially where the Coast Guard families lived. Then they drove on to the other towns, by-passing our town and hitting the two that are south of us.

That combined with our city council going to these towns city councils and requesting that they get the news out to the parents who were driving their kids to our town to "reap the benefits", resulted in a drastic reduction of extra kids in our town. There is only one way into our town from the north and that is our bridge. Our volunteers were there with a car by car search for teenagers armed with eggs, tp, and by now they had graduated up to spray paint. All of this was confiscated as well as alcoholic beverages. Their parents were called and these kids had to wait for BOTH parents to come get them. One of the parents had to drive their car back.

This year, the only out of townees were families related to those of our people. Since 1978 I have lived in town, then moved three years later to 5 miles from town to the north [out in the hicks where my nearest neighbors were 5 and1 acres away], then 6 miles out of town towards the east where only the kids who lived in my trailer park came knocking on my door. I didn't give out candy - they came in to help frost cookies, then took them and a loaf of home made white bread home for their parents. Then the next year I lived in town and had NO kids living near me, or who even came up my hill to hit the houses up there. We deposited candy though - to help out others. Finally in 2004 I moved to AZ. Had NO one come trick or treating there. We brought 4 bags of candy to the Stake house for a Stake wide church Trunk N Treat in the parking lot and room by room and the entire cultural hall & stage Halloween party inside.

When we got home, NO one had done anything to our house or property.

Then we come back to my little home town in 2010, the Halloween Deposit & Withdrawal is still happening. Where we live there aren't street lights, and the kids only go to the houses on their blocks, then get in the car to hit the gated community. Like I said, this year and last there was no Deposit/Withdrawal. The homes in the gated community and the open communities next to them are now populated by empty nesters and they flat refuse to buy candy for the *Little Bugger*. Their front porches are black as are their front windows. No decorations, no one answers their knocks.

The local children's advocacy group put on a Harvest Party this year. Served soup, rolls and UN-spiked cider [free to all ages], they offered all sorts of games, etc. for the kids to earn their candy. When our High School moved up the hill, the old gym was sold to this children's advocacy group for a song and a dance. This is where the warming shelter is during the winter for ALL homeless, it is a seven day "soup kitchen" for breakfast/lunch/dinner. Their sister place across the street [which is where a mortgage company built and then closed down and sold the LAND and building to this group for another song N dance is where the kids go after school until their parents get off work and pick them up, where drop-outs come to be tutored, and to tutored the younger children. This advocacy group is funded by a trust fund set up by one of the local boy who had no children and had more money than he knew what to do with. When he passed he willed half of his estate to his living brother and the other half to be set up for a children's advocacy for the kids. ALL kids within a 20 mile radius. Then the other half of the funds are from donations from the town's people. Oh, this Harvest Party started at 4pm, the parents & kids showed up in and out of costume, they helped cook, serve, decorate, man the stations.

One of the stores - a Mom & Pop operation - donated some of the straw bales, other's donated even more - and the volunteer fire department people [which Mom & Pop are part of] set up a maze in the old football field next to the old gym and manned that. I wish that I had had the energy and been free of pain to take my folding chair and go sit out on the street and watch and listen to the children AND teens having so much fun!

Edited November 2, 2018 by estradling75
Trying to undo the strikethrough - can't do it!!

[estradling75]

@Iggy Got the strike through for you

[mirkwood]

2 hours ago, MormonGator said:

What is worse-liking Kiss or not liking Halloween? 

Are you trying to make my head explode?

[Guest MormonGator]

Just now, mirkwood said:

Are you trying to make my head explode?

No, the oleander I put in your orange juice should be more than sufficient to get the job done.