"I never stopped." is NOT an acceptable answer. If that is the only answer you can think of, go reply to a different thread.
I'm talking about that awful moment when most of us realized that our candy-begging days were over.
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In the count-down days before Halloween of 1958, it dawned on me that by the same time next year I would be thirteen years old. A teenager. Too "mature" to be participating in the same activities that kept 1st and 2nd graders scampering between houses in the dark. This would be my last year dressing up in a homemade costume and raiding the neighbors' larders.
I was always bigger than the other kids. Clothing made for kids my same age never fit properly. For some reason, Halloween costumes were even worse. Shoes were impossible.
In kid-world where sheer size equated to implied sophistication, I stuck out like a sore great toe. I acted much too childishly for my stature.
I guess I was still smarting from a Saturday movie matinee the previous summer. I was turned away at the box office. The cashier refused to believe I was as young as the other kids in line and would not sell me a Child's Admission ticket.
Since I did not have any excess funds (I had opted to buy outside candy with my popcorn and soda money on they way to the theater), there was nothing for me to do but walk back home.
The situation was resolved later by my angry mother waving a birth certificate at the cashier. At least the other kids were inside and didn't witness this part of my humiliation.
The short time between that summer and Halloween solidified the notion that I would not be able to lose myself in the crowd of trick-or-treaters much longer. Even last year's outing brought me questioning looks and hard stares from some of the neighbors.
This year was going to be it.
October 31, 1958 was on a Friday. No school the next day. As it turned out, I was completely on my own my last year. I ranged farther afield than ever before, stayed out so late that all the porch lights were extinguished on my last run and completely filled two of the local supermarket's largest brown bags all by myself. It was my best Halloween ever.
Saturday morning the strangely quiet streets were spotted with smashed Jack O'Lanterns and melted wax. Halloween was over for one more year. For me, the part that of it I loved the most was over forever.
That was fifty-five years ago. But the spirit still lives in my heart. The mere sight of orange and black sets the blood coursing through my veins and heightens my senses.
On cool fall nights, when the wind is just right, I can still catch a whiff of candle-roasted pumpkin and hear the faint shrieks and giggles of distant children in the dark.
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I honestly don't remember that last year I trick-or-treated. I must have been 13, because in my first year of high school I stayed home, dressed up in a suit, top hat, cape, doctor's bag, and gigantic surgeon's blade (real!), and gave out treats as Jack the Ripper. I continued to dress up for Halloween throughout the '90s, well into my 30's. But, I can't remember my last costume as a trick-or-treater. Heck, I won the first Chiller Theatre Expo costume contest, dressed as Leatherface. I think my last costume was Prof. Van Helsing at Chiller in October '97, brandishing a mallet and bloody stake. It was the last year I could walk without two canes. The next Halloween, I had to do Chiller in a wheelchair.
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I really don't recall when I stopped Trick or Treating? It may have been around 1978/79? I was becoming older, and my Mom said I was too old to be Trick or Treating.. In reality I couldn't fit the costumes anymore. I was becoming taller. The
later years, I didn't miss Trick our Treating.
Then around 1988, as I attended college in Reno. My friends and I got super drunk, put on some make-shift costumes and a little makeup. We proceed to knock on peoples does for candy. Of course, bring turned down. That night was really fun. My friends and I did manage to score some good candy. >:D
When I hit 6 foot. They wouldn't give me candy, so I concentrated on girls, beer, and automobiles.
Fifth grade was my last year. My folks declared I was too old after that.
Amazingly, I'm a combo of the last two answers. I hit 6 ft tall at 5th grade and as I went from house to house everybody said "You are a bit old aren't you?" so that was my last year.
I did accompany my younger brothers and sisters occasionally after that but in the "adult" role.
Generally I just stayed home and handed out candy.
13 or 14, I wasn't going to even go out that year but I ended up going out with a group of kids (some older, some younger) that night!
I was thirteen or fourteen. I probably would have stopped earlier but my friends insisted I go with them. I wore a makeshift yet entirely inaccurate Ninja Turtle costume. I had a rubber Leonardo mask, but I had a homemade wooden staff strapped to my back. Donatello's weapon. It was thrown together hastily because I wasn't expecting to go out that night.
I was a senior in high school, aged 17, when I made my last rounds with my friend Jim. That would have been 1979. I don't remember what I wore as a costume, some type of monster though. I was 5' 10" tall, Jim was 6' 5"
I have trick or treated for most of my life. I trick or treated up until around age 14 with my twin brother but by then we started taking our little brother around for trick or treating until I was around 19 years old and my little brother was 6 years old. There were a few years of Halloween parties and college but I still went to costume contests etc. Now that I am a dad I take my children around trick or treating and have for the last 6 years or so. Out of my 36 years I think I have Trick or Treated for 25 years in addition to Halloween parties, carnivals, spook houses, etc.
Trick or Treating with my brothers in 1994 at age 17, trying to give my little brother some of the Halloween memories that I love.
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Trick or Treating with my son in 2007
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Trick or Treating with my sons in 2011
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Trick or Treating with my sons in 2012
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Quote from: Monster Bob on August 24, 2013, 07:33:29 AM
When I hit 6 foot. They wouldn't give me candy, so I concentrated on girls, beer, and automobiles.
Bet that was hard to stuff in a pumpkin-shaped basket, and even harder to get folks to give them out while going door to door in a scary costume.
Those are some awesome pics, Ghost!
I think it was sixth grade. But all's well that ends well. With two daughters, my wife and I will be rejoining the T and T festivities for years to come. Party on!
The spoils of war
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A few more trick or treating images.
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Quote from: Monsters For Sale on August 24, 2013, 02:20:44 AM
October 31, 1958 was on a Friday. No school the next day. As it turned out, I was completely on my own my last year. I ranged farther afield than ever before, stayed out so late that all the porch lights were extinguished on my last run and completely filled two of the local supermarket's largest brown bags all by myself. It was my best Halloween ever.
My favorite was when after the porch lights were out people would just leave the bowl of candy on their porch with a sign to take as much as we wanted. The people had already turned in for the night and didn't want the left over candy and other trick or treaters were finished or skipped the house because the light was off and they didn't see the bowl.
Quote from: Monsters For Sale on August 24, 2013, 02:20:44 AM
But the spirit still lives in my heart. The mere sight of orange and black sets the blood coursing through my veins and heightens my senses.
Amen to that brother.
On the rare years (pre-children) that I didn't go out trick or treating and stayed home scaring the older kids and passing out candy, I was surprised at how many high school age kids came around. Which was fun for me because I would try to scare them. I don't try to scare the little ones. I refuse to give any candy to anyone not in costume (the one exception was a desperate parent with a sick kid at home trying to gather something for the kid who missed out. I knew her from the neighborhood) I was miffed at these teenage punks who didn't even try to dress up, knocking on doors looking for candy with a plastic grocery sack. I asked them if they had a party to be at or something and shamed them off the porch. However no matter how old if they were in costume they got candy, especially cool costumes get a full size candy bar in my book. I set up a rotating light wheel that alternately bathed the house in green, blue, red, and yellow light with dry ice fog, spooky sounds playing, and a mock dungeon the length of the porch. Kids entered one side and exited the other with windows that opened on each side that I could open and jump out scare the older ones. I scared one group of teenage boys and girls bad enough that I had time to get two jump screams out of them because one of the boys had fallen over at my first attempt and was scrambling backwards in a crab walk blockading his friend's progress and giving me time to switch windows further down. My friends and family inside were in hysterics when I came in to tell them about it asking how I got two blood curdling screams from the group within seconds of each other.
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I of course learned the techniques from my old man who worked in a haunted house when I was a kid and always had an elaborate display of dummies around the house. I remember the tricks of stuffing newspaper in your sleeves and pulling your fingers up out of your gloves as you hid in costume among the dummies. The curious would come close to verify that you were not real and squeeze your arm or fingers. Now thinking that you were just a dummy they foolishly turned their backs to you and my old man and I would scare them to death.
The last time I went out for Trick-or-Treat-ing was when I was in 7th or 8th grade.
'Always decorate our house and enjoy wearing costumes while givin' out candy.
Some of the people I work with have over 200 kids coming to their door on 10/31.
I usually get around 40 to 80.
After givin' out candy I'm out in a costume and sometimes make a few costume changes the same night.
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My last year of trick or treating was 1964 when I was twelve years old and in grade eight. I never had any costumes; only fresh, new vacuformed masks that I picked out every year.
The following year I was in a boarding school in Kennebunkport, Maine so there wasn't even the question let alone the opportunity for trick or treating. I was back home in London the following year and have been the one giving out the Halloween candies ever since.
:-\
Quote from: Ghost on August 24, 2013, 11:29:44 AM
The spoils of war
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Wow! Kids score such great loot these days.
:o
Most of our hauls as kids consisted of Halloween kisses, suckers, bubble gum and those little penny Chiclet packages. To score even ten little chocolate bars and bags of chips would have been a big time coup!
:(
This is a really interesting topic! I love all the pictures that have shown up along the way. You all have some top notch costumes!!
I remember also being very tall for my age (I was 5'6' when I was 11), and I will always remember walking around with my friends in Michigan on that last Trick or Treat expedition... We went to a "rich" neighborhood where they had awesome candy! And finished up at a general store where they were giving out free hot dogs!! And cider!! I was 11, but the next year- no Trick or Treating- just Halloween Parties with awkward making out & listening to records....not even a pumpkin! Just pre-teen boring costumes (I was a nurse) , and I had an itchy wig on. I remember wishing I was outside in the cool air instead of in some dumb basement with sweaty teens!
I guess I just felt peer pressure to stop at 12. If anyone wants to come to my house this Halloween- ALL ages are welcome! {^_^}
Not sure when I last went TOT, but I was probably 13 or so. I wasn't a GIANT at that age like some of you - LOL! More like 5' 7". I am guilty of going out when I was 17. A group of us shamefully went and hit a few houses. A really, really cute 14 year old girl (Caroline was her name) sat on my shoulders (which had widened by then ;D), and draped an extra long trenchcoat over the top of us. She even wore a cute, little mask. I enjoyed it immensely, letting her guide me around in the dark. She would slip a little candy under the coat, every so often, keeping me on track.
I became an uncle when I was 14, so I had lots of fun taking my nieces and nephew out, scaring them and stealing their candy. They turned out to be real horror fans, too!
I believe I was 14, though my mother insists I was 13. Anyway, I ended up going to the same house twice that year -- and it was totally by accident. I was always a very honest kid. The lady got really mad at me. It's funny now, but it was scary then.
During one Halloween when I still lived in NY, after I finished getting treats from our current neighborhood (going through it twice with 2 different costumes) - my Dad drove me to another neighborhood so that I could go through it twice with 2 costumes. He drove me home and I dumped-out a large pile of candy from all my bags. Then he said he will select candy for his fee. He took out all the large Hershey bars. Then I complained. Then he laughed and gave them all back to me. 'Classic.
Hopefully all of us had at least one year when we made out like a pirate!! 8) >:D 8) >:D 8) >:D
Classic thread. I probably stopped around 13 too, but reluctantly, because it was a lot of fun. Loved especially going way out of the way, to find the houses that had been made really spooky--hanging black threads from above the front porch so you would feel "spiderwebs" brushing you in the face was a cool trick. Playing a creepy Halloween sound effects LP from just inside the door was cool too. Eventually I started enjoying making my place spooky, and that was just as much fun!
By the way, I never mentioned why I retired from TOT. It was a "rite of passage", sorta LIKE GETTING RID OF MY MONSTER TOYS! Dammit!
Quote from: Unknown Primate on August 25, 2013, 01:35:15 PM
By the way, I never mentioned why I retired from TOT. It was a "rite of passage", sorta LIKE GETTING RID OF MY MONSTER TOYS! Dammit!
It's free to "pass", but expensive as hell to try to go back. ;)
Man - you are so right!
Summer of '69 (I was 12) we moved from our Leave it to Beaver house (in our Leave it to Beaver neighborhood)
to our Brady Bunch house (in a very Brady neighborhood)... didn't go trick or treating that year but I did ride my
bike around...
The last year that I went trick or treating with a full spirit was when I was ten .. When I was eleven, I only went collecting for UNICEF but people insisted on giving me treats too which I stuck in my pockets. At twelve (in a new neighborhood) my friends and I felt too old and only did a few houses without much spirit.
My parents won't allow me to eat any candy until they went through my bag, the stuff that they didn't feel was 'safe' was recycled to the 'big kids' who came later in the evening. Somehow, the Oh Henrys all ended up with my dad.
I enjoy giving out candy. 8)
13.
I remember rushing home from football practice in 8th grade to get ready for T or Ting.
When I hit high school it was party time on Halloween.
Last year I took my daughter out for the first time and it was magical again.
It was around 1968.
In junior high our interests sort of migrated from "kid stuff" to more hormone driven activities. My school and church still had some sort of Halloween celebrations--mostly "dances." However, dancing was pretty low on the activity list. We mostly spent time hanging around the refreshment table or the perimeter of the gym waiting for something--not sure what--but something to happen. When we had things more-or-less figured out, some of us paired off. Halloween parties were a little more interesting when dodging the chaperone was added to the other more traditional party activities.
I suppose the last time I went trick or treating was in 1977 when I was 23! Several of my friends got together and made a funeral wagon complete with coffin and corpse. We pulled the wagon through all the streets in our little town visiting all of the houses along the way collecting goodies. We were made up as corpses, vampires and ghouls for our outing. When we finished our rounds we went to church for the midweek service. You should have seen the faces of the congregation when we entered in all of our ghoulish glory! Our pastor was a really great guy and just laughed and welcomed us.
I actually went Trick or Treating at the age of 30, believe it or not. These girls I knew never stopped going, so one year I decided to tag along. We all had on full masks, so it's not like anyone knew. No one even questioned it. Free candy is free candy as far as I'm concerned. I have no shame when it comes to chocolate. ;D
Quote from: RICKH on August 27, 2013, 09:47:52 PMI suppose the last time I went trick or treating was in 1977 when I was 23! Several of my friends got together and made a funeral wagon complete with coffin and corpse. We pulled the wagon through all the streets in our little town visiting all of the houses along the way collecting goodies. We were made up as corpses, vampires and ghouls for our outing. When we finished our rounds we went to church for the midweek service. You should have seen the faces of the congregation when we entered in all of our ghoulish glory! Our pastor was a really great guy and just laughed and welcomed us.
Great stunt! Thanks for sharing.
;D