When Did YOU Stop Trick-or-Treating - and Why?

[Monsters For Sale]

"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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[Count_Zirock]

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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[marsattacks666]

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.

[Monster Bob]

When I hit 6 foot. They wouldn't give me candy, so I concentrated on girls, beer, and automobiles.

[Paul L]

Fifth grade was  my last year. My folks declared I was too old after that.

[Gillfan]

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.

[zombiehorror]

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!

[robodog]

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.

[Zackuth]

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"

[Ghost]

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.



Trick or Treating with my son in 2007



Trick or Treating with my sons in 2011





Trick or Treating with my sons in 2012

[Dr. Madd]

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.

[Unknown Primate]

Those are some awesome pics, Ghost!

[Dr. Madd]

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!

[Ghost]

The spoils of war



A few more trick or treating images.

[Ghost]

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.

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.