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

[Ghost]

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.



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 Batman]

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.

[Hepcat]

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.

[Hepcat]

The spoils of war

Wow! Kids score such great loot these days.



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!

[charp13]

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!   {^_^}

[Unknown Primate]

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 ), 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!

[aura of foreboding]

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. 

[The Batman]

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!! 

[neonnoodle]

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!

[Unknown Primate]

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!

[horrorhunter]

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.

[Unknown Primate]

Man - you are so right!

[Street Worm]

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...

[Flower]

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. 

[BaronLatos35]

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.