We had, roughly, 200 trick-or-treaters visit last night!

[MineralMan]

Uff da! We were prepared, we though. We bought 5 boxes of full-size candy bars at Costco, so we had 150 full-size candies to hand out. Ever the optimist, I bought a few bags of my favorite candies, of the fun-size varieties (Yeah Mounds!), just in case.

Well, it was case. We ran out of the full-sizers about 7 PM and had to go to the emergency supplies. All my Mounds are gone. BooHoo!

We live in a residential neighborhood in Saint Paul...nice ramblers built in the 50s. The neighborhood is completely random, ethnically, so we had Hmong kids, hispanic kids, black kids, and an assortment of caucasian kids through the evening. My wife's sister and her 12-year old son and her mom were there for pizza and candy passing.

At least 80% of the kids said thank you after getting their candy bar. No really bizarre costumes, except for the teenage boy in one group of teenagers who wore nothing but a diaper. He was the New Year's baby, he said. My wife said, "Oh, my!" when she saw him.

The kids don't just walk around the neighborhood, though, in most cases. Parents in minivans drive around and stop on the blocks with lit-up houses. So we drew kids from several blocks around.

No pranks. No smashed pumpkins. Just a bunch of nice neighborhood kids out for Halloween. It was great! Reminds me of how Halloween was back in the 50s when I was a kid. There is hope!

[Bertha Venation]

1. Sounds nice.

I want to travel back in time to age eleven (and to St. Paul) and trick or treat in your neighborhood. :thumbsup:

[MineralMan]

3. Yeah, me too. Especially the traveling back in time thing.

The small town I grew up in was heaven on Halloween. It's funny that a big city neighborhood feels much the same as things did back then. Kids play outside all the time around my place and all the neighbors are pretty friendly.

A new family is moving into the rental home across the street this weekend. I think my wife's going to make a batch of brownies to give them this afternoon. Like me, she grew up in the time when that's what neighbors did.

I wonder about this a lot. The neighborhood is distinctly blue collar. Probably 60% of the houses are owner-occupied. When the snow falls, everyone is out dealing with the snow, and most people clear more than their own sidewalks. There aren't too many snowblowers in the neighborhood, and you'll see those who have them clearing their neighbor's driveways after they've done theirs. I do a neighbor's driveway who is even older than I am, and clear the ends of several driveways after the snowplow goes by and piles up snow there. I'm at home, and the neighbors are at work, so I like to help them not have to shovel when they get home from work.

We have lots of Hmong families on the block, and they're among the most helpful of all. It's great!

Out in the white as snow suburbs, where some of my wife's relatives live, it's not like that at all. I just wonder if it's the blue collar nature of our neighborhood that encourages the neighborliness.

[Bertha Venation]

5. I wish I lived in such a neighborhood.

I'm glad that you do.

[david13]

2. Well, yeah, St Paul. It's like Garrison Keillor says. Come over here,

just be sure when you do you're packing the appropriate heat. You don't want to be outgunned around here.
dc

[MineralMan]

4. Not in my neighborhood.

[mnhtnbb]

6. I had one lone "princess" about age 3-4 with mom dressed as Dorothy

from Wizard of Oz.

We're in a neighborhood walking distance to UNC--so very few kids.

On the other hand, downtown Chapel Hill last night was one giant Halloween street party: crowd
estimated at 50,000. I couldn't get hubby away from watching football to go. It was a beautiful
night with a bright moon and quite warm.

http://news14.com/triangle-news-30-content/top_stories/616958/police--halloween-successful-despite-larger-crowd/

[Orangepeel]

7. I had a total of five, in only two groups.

:-(

I bought good candy, too.

[Paper Roses]

8. Lucky you! We had lots of kids years ago but the neighborhood

has changed. For the last 3 years we have had no-one. So Sad. This is the first year I did not buy candy. No kids came to the door either. I was prepared to give them quarters.

Halloween used to be such fun but now it is just another night here.

[elocs]

9. I had 0 and am still busy eating the candy I bought.

I anticipated that might happen so I only purchased candy I like.

[Jokerman]

10. We broke 200 for the first time.

People two doors down turn their entire front yard into a haunted house and that always attracts kids by the van load.

We've had 150+ each of the last few years but this year was a new record.

[MineralMan]

16. Cool! It's fun to see all the kids in their costumes.

[EFerrari]

11. You're so lucky! We get zero up in these hills and I never got one

at the beach in San Francisco. I miss my old burb neighborhood in Silicon Valley ca. 1965 when the doorbell kept going until midnight or so.

[azmouse]

12. I wish it was that way in my neighborhood.

We had only 3 adorable kids. I made sure they had plenty of candy.

[AsahinaKimi]

13. Thats really nice

I remember when it used to be like that around here..I think we only had a dozen kids show up.
I am saving the remainder of the candy for me. hehe

[driver8]

14. We took our kids trick or treating in our friends' neighborhood. It was awesome!

One of the streets goes all out in the decorations and the street was packed with trick or treaters and parents. The kids were all polite and everyone was having a great time.

It reminded me of when I was a kid, and it was great to be a part of it. Our neighbor told us he had over 200 trick or treaters, also.

Our neighborhood is dark and full of hills so we usually get no one -- it sucks.

Your halloween sounds great, too!

[MineralMan]

17. I'll bet the kids had a blast!

[MorningGlow]

15. Same here

I didn't count the kids, but I do know we went through 13 of the 20 bags of candy I bought (including one 3 1/2 lb. mega-jumbo-assortment) and I only gave out two pieces of candy to each kid. Lots of minivans pulling up on our street, bringing in the rural kids. I pulled my leather desk chair into the front hallway and left the door open--hardly ever got to sit down, though.

Most kids said "trick or treat" and "thank you"; two boys (separately) complimented our many-eyed jack o' lantern (designed by MG Jr.) The only disturbing costume I saw was a high school boy dressed as Hannah Montana. :P

No vandalism, no smashed pumpkins. I was surprised to see a couple of strips of toilet paper in our "wayback" yard and side driveway.

I do like this village that I've nicknamed Mayberry. I could do with a little less of a fixation on football, but the feeling of safety and comfort makes up for it.

[MineralMan]

18. Sounds like a great Halloween!

I'm glad you got lots of kids!