Happy Halloween

Just one set of trick-or-treaters tonight - a neighbor brought by her two kids (and they both got fistfuls of candy big enough to give their dentist a heart attack). We're in an area that is starting to change bit by bit to have more families with kids, but the trick-or-treaters seem to be fewer each year. I'm wondering how much of it is due to the fact that trick-or-treating has changed over the years.

I remember as a kid steppin' out as Fred Flintstone (gimme a break; it was the 70's) to make the rounds of the neighborhood. We ended up hitting 30+ houses. Even then, my folks made us toss away anything unwrapped or suspect (yes, there was a hainty old lady that gave out caramel apples). But we still went to houses with people that we'd never seen before, and the prevailing attitudes of the time held that kids could safely do that sort of thing. Has stuff changed that much? Now most of the trick-or-treating is done at school, or even at shopping centers.

Before long, I think that the "candy gathering" component of Halloween will be replaced or just forgotten entirely. But I'm fairly confident that the costuming part will still remain. Now if I could only fit into that "Julius Sleazer" outfit I wore back in college...