Halloween was pretty much a disappointment in our neighborhood after living in Greenleaves in Mandeville. There I learned to buy 10-12 packages of candy to have enough. Our neighborhood was well-known throughout the area as the best place to go trick or treating. Families would park their car outside the neighborhood, load up their little red wagons with kids and drinks. It was so crowded several years in a row that the police had to come in to direct traffic! No kidding!
Now, we are in a neighborhood with families and little kids, mostly running around on their 3-wheelers, golf carts and skate boards, even horses. On Halloween night, though, we had exactly one group of trick or treaters. There were eight kids total and they rode in a trailer hooked to a tractor driven by our next door neighbor. There is still evidence in my circular driveway: hay and black tire tracks.
Since my kids and their friends are grown and most are still in college, I prepared several packages full of treats and small gifts and mailed them about two weeks before Halloween. I’m glad I did! I still have candy left over so stop by sometime. You don’t have to dress up.
We had exactly no trick-or-treaters. Of course, we didn’t have any where we lived in Covington, either.
Here Halloween is downplayed a lot. The local K-2 (I think) elementary school had teddy bear week last week, culminating in a teddy bear parade on Friday. In our neighborhood there are a few houses with kids, and I have no idea what they did on Halloween because we never saw them!
Fortunately, I didn’t buy any candy! Although I could go for a little Snickers bar right about now!
Howdy neighbor! Loved your blog…you know, I too was more than a little disappointed when I saw the lack of trick or treaters our first year in our little neighborhood here at River Park. I had decorated the house with pumpkins, filled the big bowls with candy, put a big pot of our favorite chili on the stove and waited for the crowd. My teenagers were disappointed and quickly started recanting the past halloweens in our old neighborhood. “This is the worst halloween ever!” they lamented much to my heart ache. What was a momma to do? We were thankful for the neighbor with the hayride who arrived just in the nick of time to save the night for the 6 year old pirate with his hook arm so off he went to what we learned was a our new way of celebrating here in Magnolia. The following years we made a bonfire, invited classmates over and did it up ourselves, it was fun, just different. This year we were invited to a grand event with a spooky haunted trail put on by the dads and a d.j. and great food. At the end the kids were invited to fill up their trick or treat bags with all they wanted of great candy but I have to say I remain a little nastolgic for the days of all the kids roaming the neighborhood in search of candy and the quiet neighbor who one night a year would dress up and become the dreaded werewolf, goblin or some other crazy creature. We simply waved when passing at the mailbox the rest of the year but on that night, when we least expected it, his inner child would come out and he could interact in a playful way with all of us on the street. It was fun and we miss it but we are thankful for the annual hayride here and recently found out one of our newest neighbors from one of the busier neighborhoods here in town is planning on hosting a spot in her front yard with a moonwalk, games etc. to draw the crowds next year. With time maybe we will have more going on out here during the holidays and maybe share a cup of mulled cider or ghoul punch on our porches on Halloween night as all the kids line up chanting, “trick or treat?!”