the count

[darkoshi]

Trick-or-treaters:
7pm - 1 boy
7:20pm - 2 boys
It looked like that was going to be it for the night, and that I missed out on giving away the Sir Hoots-A-Lot figurine that I had gotten at Kroger for that purpose, because it was cute and deeply discounted.
But then right around 9pm,
2 groups of 3 kids each, followed by a group of 5 kids.

Total: 14 kids

Dressing up when I go to work produces an uncomfortable conflict in me. A small part of me feeling awesome and wanting to be seen and admired, or simply to bring a smile to the people who see me, and a larger part of me wanting to go straight to my cubicle where I'm mostly out of sight, so that I can lose myself in work like everything is normal for the rest of the day until I can go home and breathe a sigh of relief at it being over.

I did get to speak to another person who had dressed up though, which was nice.

Comments

[marahmarie]

Did you dress up in a Halloween costume, or did you just wear normal (dressy) clothes? If the former, which costume did you wear?

Zero trick or treaters on my end. This was my first Halloween in this place, so I was prepared to ignore an onslaught (no candy on hand) but since no one showed up, knocked, or even walked by from a visible distance, I eventually sort of relaxed.

[darkoshi]

In between. See pics in prior post. It's mainly the awesome red wig that makes it stand out to me as a "costume". The rest is fancy clothing. The silky pants seem so fancy to me that I've never worn them outside the house before - they've even got glittery buttons on the pockets. I hitched up the skirt in front, but left it long in back, to make it look better and to show off the pants more.

I remember a few years living with my dad when he didn't want to hand out candy, and I was too old for trick or treating. He'd turn the lights off and try to be quiet so that it would look like no one was home. I don't remember what I did - probably listened to the radio in my bedroom.

[marahmarie]

See pics in prior post.

I did! Still couldn't figure it out (but didn't notice the red wig, fwiw, as I didn't have my glasses on me; as you know, my eyes will fail me at times). "In-between" explains why I couldn't, so thanks for clarifying. You looked good either way, so "in-between" turned out to be one great outfit. :)

Growing up, most years mom and I (omg, in editing before posting I just realized I dropped the word "my" from that!) did give out candy, but the few years we didn't, we'd just keep the lights low, our TVs on low volume and just ignore any knocks on the door.

I don't like Halloween for all the reasons anyone's ever not liked it, so I'd be just as glad to have ignored candy-goers my whole life. I didn't even really like trick or treating as a kid - always too cold (in NY, at least), too dark, and it always felt dangerous.

I mean, my mom wouldn't walk me up to multiple strangers' doors any other night of the year and instruct me to knock, yell something at them and wait for candy as some sort of reward for what is in and of itself weird and blatantly outrageous behavior, and that wasn't lost on me from the earliest age...so I was too smart to enjoy it, I guess.

What I do like is fall/Thanksgiving - decorating outside with fall leaves-themed stuff, pumpkins, scarecrows and turkeys, and getting ready for the late fall and winter holidays. That, at least to me, seems rather nice.

[darkoshi]

I didn't even really like trick or treating as a kid - always too cold (in NY, at least), too dark, and it always felt dangerous.

I mean, my mom wouldn't walk me up to multiple strangers' doors any other night of the year and instruct me to knock, yell something at them and wait for candy as some sort of reward for what is in and of itself weird and blatantly outrageous behavior, and that wasn't lost on me from the earliest age...so I was too smart to enjoy it, I guess.

That makes perfect sense when described like that. But luckily for me, it didn't seem that way, and I did enjoy it. It was getting to run around the neighborhood knocking on doors, and getting candy! In the military housing areas where we lived, nearly everyone had kids, and there weren't older people living there, so on Halloween there were tons of kids going from one building to another. I only remember 2 slightly unpleasant incidents. Once when I said "trickertreat", the adult replied back to me "Trick!" instead of giving me the candy right away. I had no clue as to what "trick or treat" really meant and was baffled at what I was supposed to do next. But they finally handed me the candy.
The other time, someone gave me candy along with the comment "Aren't you a little old to be trick or treating?" That made me feel bad and was the last year I did it, when I was 11 or 12 years old.
By the way, yesterday I overheard a coworker saying that she says the exact same thing when she gets older kids (13yo+) trick or treating at her door. And I felt like telling her "why do you have to take the fun out of it for them!" but didn't say anything.

[marahmarie]

Yeah, I had "trick" yelled back at me once in a while, too. My mom would usually just grab me by the shoulder and get me away from those people as quickly as possible. I think that's half the reason I was scared overall, because I could read her sometimes not feeling entirely safe about things, herself.

Also, your story of trick or treating in military neighborhoods reminds me of the biggest reason the whole ordeal each year might've scared me...I spent four of my earlier childhood years in an apartment complex that my mom refused to trick or treat in. I guess she thought our neighborhood was a bit lowbrow for her kids to knock on doors in (though for much of that time my sister was a baby so she didn't come with us; instead she'd be left with a neighbor who acted as a sitter while we were gone).

She'd take us to just a handful of nearby friends and acquaintances, then we'd jump in the car and drive to the next town over, to a neighborhood I guess she thought was a bit nicer (houses/cul de sacs) which still wigged me out, because in the dark I felt unfamiliar with the territory and knew no one answering the doors.

Maybe I've always had a sort of instinctively cautious personality; part of that might've been being sensitive to my mom's own reactions to other people and various situations. I think I tend to absorb the feelings of people closer to me like a sponge, then not even realize it until something forces me to confront that fact.