Hallowe’en is coming and houses are being decorated in preparation for the big night. Parents will usher their kiddies up and down the street, teens will dress up one last time in hopes of scoring a vomit-worthy stash. Our little ghouls and goblins who are out to trick and receive treats are anticipating not only the sweets, but also the scares. The frightening begins and ends with monsters, ghosts, jack-o-lanterns and creatures of the night. Or does it?
Personally, I find the worst – the most chilling of the lot, are the yearly list of warnings:
Check the candy before you eat it!
Don’t accept anything not prepackaged!
Of course the safety list goes on. But what the hell with the poisoned, razor-blade-ladened food? Do we distrust our neighbours this much? Is anyone actually stupid enough to still attempt to get away with such abominations? After all, it’s been what… 40 years since all this paranoia began? I suppose we’ve become so accustomed to being told that there are real threats everywhere that we accept this the way we do anything else.
So kiddies, watch out, because it’s not the vampire hovering at your window, or the mummy banging at the lid of its coffin you have to worry about. It’s the nice little old lady down the street who spent weeks making candy apples that you need to fear the most.
freedigitalphotos.net
Edit: The statistics of poisoning in Hallowe’en candy – here.
lindaghill.com 
October 19, 2013 at 10:30 pm
Now that all my kids are grown and have “Mini-Me’s” of their own, I realize how much I miss the holiday…
In the more innocent times…
Kinda sad when people can even kill a tradition…
LikeLike
October 20, 2013 at 10:48 am
What’s next, Santa?
LikeLike
October 19, 2013 at 9:50 pm
We will visit the lady across the street, who has decorated her house. Then we will head to the in-laws’ church for a party, where my wee ones will eat every bit of that candy without inspection.
I don’t think our neighborhood is particularly Trick-or-Treat friendly…
LikeLike
October 20, 2013 at 10:44 am
I suppose there are parts of every town where one might not want to go around.
LikeLike
October 20, 2013 at 2:30 pm
Well, yeah, my neighborhood is only made up of about eight houses. Two are empty, one holds a hermit, one is sketchy…so we’ll just see the lady across the street 🙂
LikeLike
October 20, 2013 at 3:45 pm
Ah, I see. I’d do the same thing – or drive my kids to a more populated part of town. 😛
LikeLike
October 20, 2013 at 8:47 pm
🙂
LikeLike
October 19, 2013 at 8:28 pm
We haven’t had a round of kids for years at any of the places I have lived in ‘Vegas. There is so much on the school party, church party, and then the Malls all give out free candy, children, or rather parents, just don’t take the kids around. It is so funny when they have all these huge bags of candy for sale, and I often wonder if all the people buying a few bags really think that there are going to be kids enough to give that all to. I guess the worst scenario for them is to have left over candy.
But I know people with kids and they just do the three I mentioned, and perhaps a relatives or close friend’s house, and that is it.
LikeLike
October 19, 2013 at 9:40 pm
I’ve never heard of such a thing here in Canada. We do it the traditional way still, going from house to house. And it’s been years, you say? I wonder why?
LikeLike
October 19, 2013 at 9:54 pm
Too many people just being mean, and I guess people worry about their kids being snatched. Statistics do not support this behavior, but urban legends do.
LikeLike
October 20, 2013 at 10:45 am
That’s exactly what I’m talking about – the urban legends. Just something to add to our paranoia.
LikeLike
October 20, 2013 at 3:53 pm
In the States, we pass laws based on Urban Legends, and one incident that went wrong. Then, we don’t impose the laws which are already in place. On top of that, we fill our prisons with ‘soft’ people who just sell drugs or tax evasion, and then mix them with ‘hard’ people. Then we wonder why we have so many people in prison, wonder why there is such a disparity of races in prison, and why the prisoners get all pissy and riot every once in a while. I did a rather lengthy study on prisons, and it was very eye opening, and that was way back in 2000. It is so much worse now.
LikeLike
October 20, 2013 at 4:00 pm
Gotta wonder about the abilities of those we put in power, don’t you? It’s the same everywhere I think, to some degree.
LikeLike
October 20, 2013 at 4:21 pm
I have wondered for years, tried to influence the vote, and come to the conclusion, if enough money is spent, the person will win, despite votes. They are played with here, and a lot of people are really growing to distrust the voting system. There is always some ‘tag’ or technical problem in a state, but when it all comes out in the wash, the one who had the most money on their campaign wins.
LikeLike
October 20, 2013 at 4:23 pm
Scary. I don’t know if it’s the same here or if we’re just not as conscious of it. I’d like to think things are fair, but (ha) there you go. That’s the mentality of most Canadians.
LikeLike
October 20, 2013 at 4:28 pm
I don’t fault Canadians for their kindness or their belief in their government. Perhaps if we as a Nation weren’t so damn suspicious all this stuff wouldn’t come out. I would have questioned some written information about our leaders, but after this shut down, no, they all need to be replaced. The problem, and I have discussed this and really thought about this, is when we replace the ones in power, we end up putting the same thing in it. Once a person gets that mixed up politics, they are already lost to the people, so replacing the ones in, is redundant as the ones we put in are going to be just a self-assured as the old. I don’t know the answer.
LikeLike
October 20, 2013 at 5:03 pm
It’s a tough one. I haven’t really kept up with the news on the shut-down, but what you say makes sense to me. I wish there was a solution.
LikeLike
October 19, 2013 at 3:42 pm
I am not too keen on Halloween . ( hehehehe that rhymes!!) 😉
LikeLike
October 19, 2013 at 4:46 pm
It’s not my favourite holiday either, but my kids love it.
LikeLike
October 19, 2013 at 5:53 pm
yes mine did too!
LikeLike
October 19, 2013 at 6:35 pm
🙂
LikeLike
October 19, 2013 at 2:36 pm
I should have known this started in Long Island, NY. I’ve met people over my years of trick or treating that I wouldn’t be surprised about. These days, half the people in the area do the ‘Take One’ bowl on the stoop. Why do people think that works for more than an hour?
LikeLike
October 19, 2013 at 4:45 pm
Yeah, leaving the bowl outside doesn’t make much sense to me either. But I suppose if you’ve got kids that want to go out and you’re single, what do you do?
LikeLike
October 19, 2013 at 4:48 pm
I can understand that. Many of these people can be seen inside their houses. Just anti-social.
LikeLike
October 19, 2013 at 6:35 pm
Some of those costumes are scary! Especially the ones the toddlers wear!
LikeLike
October 19, 2013 at 6:37 pm
I haven’t seen many scary ones the last few years. Worst was a little boy dressed as Barney the Dinosaur.
LikeLike
October 19, 2013 at 6:37 pm
Ha! The horror!
LikeLike
October 19, 2013 at 2:18 pm
I agree with you but there is a good reason of being paranoid because world is not as neat as one would want it to be. Parents hear the news of such incidents and therefore, they are worried. Trust is a concept which is seldom brought into equation today.
LikeLike
October 19, 2013 at 2:24 pm
I’ve added a link to the bottom of my post, to the Wikipedia page on the myth of Hallowe’en candy tampering. It is SO rare…
But I see your point. The world isn’t a perfect place. But if we can’t trust our closest neighbours, who can we trust?
LikeLike