Odd Halloween Treats

[Mr. DS]

I was just thinking back to my old neighborhood growing up and what some people gave out as treats on Halloween.  I had one guy who would always give out potato chips which I thought ruled. However, there were several older ladies that gave out raisins and a few that gave out quarters.  Anyhow else have that experience of slightly different Halloween treats you found in your bag when you got home?

[Susan]

I never got any weird stuff, but when i was growing up we had more variety. No fun size candy bars. We had:

- FULL size candy bars
- Varities of candy, suckers, gum, the usual stuff
- Money (I loved finding change, and honestly people should do this for the little kids. Plus it's a great way to get rid of all the pennies lying around)
- Homemade cookies. Yep back then we weren't afraid of terrorists
- Candy and Caramel apples (mostly our direct neighbors)
- homemade popcorn balls
- silly halloween rings, stickers or toys

I remember one house giving away CD's once, the guy worked at a radio station. Word spread so quick by the time we got there he ran out. Another time i visited an old couple who never ever had trick or treaters cross the main street to their house. The woman was so excited but didn't have any candy and ran in her kitchen to give us fruit..lol We probably made her day

And yeah, the dummies who give out the mini toothpaste. Whats up with that? Like kids don't have toothpaste at home.

When i was growing up we didn't have candy in the house. We didn't get candy bought for us everytime we went to the store. On X-mas we got limited amounts (not the masses kids get today). So halloween was a BIG deal. I hit those streets like a prostitute going door to door until my feet wore out. With a pillowcase in hand i returned home dragging my goodies to the horror of my mother who had to contend with finding a way to tell me my 40lb bag was too much..lol

And damn everyone who sucks the whole fun out of halloween by having safe events at the mall and happy halloween decorations. Nobody has ever been poisoned, it's an urban legend!!! sigh, it ain't what it used to be

[RCMerchant]

  I bought lotsa cool monster gummies...like gummi fangs, spiders, skulls; candy bones that come in little plastic coffins which you can put together into cool skeletons; wax lips and teeth, neccoo wafers (just cus I like neccoo wafers), Mary Janes, gum, candy ciggerettes (because I'm EVIL!) ,...all sorts of stickey  things you get outta of gumball machines like frogs and lizards and tiny maces with pointy spikes....I'm going to dress up like a zombie and sit on my porch in a chair and play the Horror Movie themes CD
and hand out candy!!!   

[Raffine]

Nobody has ever been poisoned, it's an urban legend!!!

Yeah, the only case on record of someone poisoning Halloween candy was some bastard who tried to poison his own kids. He was going to claim they ate 'poisoned Halloween candy'.

I remember after we'd cleaned out our immediate neighborhood we'd beg our mom to drive us to 'fresh' territory. I also remember how word of who was giving the best treats would spread like wildfire throught the various spooks, witches, and hobos roaming the night.

One thing I definitely miss about living in a very isolated rural area is no trick or treaters. When I lived in Nashville they would be lined up four or five deep at times! As the hour got later I would be reminded of Erma Bombeck's comments: "The later it got the trick or treaters got taller and the costumes less imaginative."

[Mr. DS]

I'm taking my son out Halloween and will probably exploit several neighborhoods for candy.  Back home growing up, I'd keep to the local neighborhood but would still make a pretty good haul.  My older brother and I would set up our house scary.  We were the house that kids were a bit frightened to go visist. It was always a ton of fun and til this day Halloween is my favorite holiday.   

[Susan]

One thing I definitely miss about living in a very isolated rural area is no trick or treaters. When I lived in Nashville they would be lined up four or five deep at times! As the hour got later I would be reminded of Erma Bombeck's comments: "The later it got the trick or treaters got taller and the costumes less imaginative."

Yep, the past few years i've seen very tall teenagers who look old enough to drive not dressing up at all. I was more clever than them when I was 12. I hit every house in the neighborhood until there were no more kids out. Then we did the walk, where we went back to some doors knowing they put out the WHOLE BOWL just so they didn't have to answer the door no more.

Funny - i'd like to know how this MASS HYSTERIA has only gotten worse year after year regarding the safety of the candy. Now there aren't as many kids because the parents take them to safe places like churches and malls (boring). Some parents are too lazy to get out and walk that i've seen them driving in their car alongside the road.

I used to go to my parents house and do up their porch since i live in an apartment. I had the bubbling cauldron with glow in the dark spider webs and spiders and a black light with bats and snakes and a homemade carved pumpking, hanging ghost, and halloween sound effects. The little kids were scared to get on the porch but th parents LOVED it and started having their kids pose and snap pictures. I overheard kids saying "Let's go back to the cool house", and i used to love siting on the porch watching the toddlers take their first glance at a scary halloween. Then they didn't want to leave, i remember seeing them holding their moms hand being taken away but glancing over their shoulder pointing with the other hand wanting to come back. I get a real kick out of that, knowing that in today's world where people want to put up happy pumpkins and pumpkin house lightS (ugh) and make halloween into a happy joy joy day where we can't scare kids that I can still bring back the old school and know that kids today love every minute of it.

I remember one house i took my godson to the bowl of candy was in the hands of a zombie/mummy on the porch. Kids warily said "Trick or treat?" trying to figure out if it was real. WHen they decided it was just a fake they grabbed some candy and it got up out of the chair and screamed ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAA! and ran at them. Kids went flying in every direction...lol
And i heard them talking about it on all the streets, they thought it was the coolest thing ever

It's ironic parents are worried their kids will be traumatized by being scared on halloween and yet they'll buy them violent video games that are 100x more traumatic than any holiday could be

[Andrew]

We usually give out glow-in-the-dark bracelets and necklaces, the kind that you crack and then shake up (like the light sticks).

I used to always chase the neighborhood kids around with a chainsaw (blade removed) or something like that.  Since we now have kids, that takes up much of my time until they get older.  Then I'll dust off the old chainsaw and my scary freak voice. 

"I want your faaaaaccccceeee!" 
**Loud chainsaw sounds**

[Newt]

My Halloween's were much as Susan remembers.

But we were the house handing out the really 'odd' stuff:

ice cream bars.

In a climate where it often was snowing on Halloween. (Costumes either had to be designed to accomodate a snowsuit..or you had to enter the house and strip off outerwear to show off your creation.  Ugh!)

I'm pretty sure my Mom did it because it forced the kids to remove their masks and be identifiable.  She wanted to know who had come by.  For some reason that was important to her.  I think she needed to be able to tell the parents in conversation the next day "oh yes little Johnny was so cute as that zombie-alien-garbage man"

It could not have been all bad: we were known for the ice cream tradition and gave out 200-300 treats in a rather small town. We ran out most years.  Of course, a lot of the neighbours gave out apples and such.  So I suppose Ice cream was a good deal...

Bloody cold though.

Nowadays my kids come home with cans of pop.  Yikes: heavy!

[Allhallowsday]

I can remember getting home-baked (and hot) gingerbread... candy served in sterling dishes with serving spoons each Trick-r-Treater was expected to scoop into their sacks... hand sewn treat bags, with individually typed ghost stories including requisite homemade candy... a dram of "witches' brew" and a donut... getting a small bag with Halloween art plus treats was a big deal... bags of chips were unusual, but I got a few over the many years I begged on Halloween, including Cheez Doodles, Wise Potato Chips, and Pretzels... I was one of those tall idiots out innocently collecting Halloween candy at too late an age and hearing guff for it...

[Funny - i'd like to know how this MASS HYSTERIA has only gotten worse year after year regarding the safety of the candy. Now there aren't as many kids because the parents take them to safe places like churches and malls (boring).   

Don't forget the Firehouse !  Awareness is the enemy of Innocence.  Fewer and fewer Trick or Treators come each year, but I still hang the paper skeletons every Halloween afternoon (two, they dangle and dance for 2 full days, and are removed by November 3 (I usually keep them up thru All Souls Day, Nov 2).  I know about the "reputation" house, and I strove to make my own place a place the kids could count on cool decorations that were fleeting and not tired out by weeks and weeks of display,  good treats (take a handful, 'cause fewer and fewer appear) and myself or a guest answering the door in my arsenal of masks and gadgets; my friend Rosemary calls "doodads and dadoos," and give 'em a cheap thrill...

It's ironic parents are worried their kids will be traumatized by being scared on halloween and yet they'll buy them violent video games that are 100x more traumatic than any holiday could be

Maybe that's not really what they're afraid of.        

[Khaz]

The gene puddle in my town used to be alot smaller, so we used to get some really odd treats such as..

- single serving breakfast cereal
- muffins
- really bad homemade fudge
- 8 piece glow in the dark jigsaw puzzles
- bananas
- one crazy lady tried to give us kittens 3 years in a row
- Tim Hortons gift cards ( that's a really popular coffee shop here in Canada) <-- guess kids need coffee too

The great part is you can't spit in my town during Halloween without hitting a chainsaw weilding maniac/ zombie/ vampire/ robot-zombie-chansaw-weilding-vampire! The whole town turns into a giant funhouse show. Other than a fear of chainsaws, I turned out fine 

[nshumate]

The oddest "treats" always come from the houses of dentists (toothbrushes) and teachers (pencils).

This week, I'm considering raiding the quarter box at my local comic book store and giving out backissues.

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

I have joined the infamous list.  We forgot to buy candy so my wife has decided to give out packages of microwave popcorn from a case my inlaws gave us.  I'll have to sit up all night scaring away eggers!
-Ed