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.
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chiming
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Date: 2016-11-02 03:54 am (UTC)From: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.