Halloween is over for another year


We had a quiet evening, with maybe a half-dozen parties of little kids stopping by, and now it’s late enough that I think we’re going to be stuck with a big bucket of candy.

pumpkins

Everyone got to play with the witch’s cauldron on Google, right? Get over there now before she disappears.

Comments

  1. Menyambal --- inesteemable says

    I got to spend part of Halloween in the lunchroom of an elementary school. The kids were hyped-up on candy, and carrying trays with bowls of chili. It looked like a slasher movie.

    I hid this evening, gave away no candy, and still got scared by an angry teen with relationship troubles. Quite the fright.

    I saw the movie _Paranorman_ today, and liked it. So did the kids.

  2. magistramarla says

    I just came inside to drink my hot toddy.
    Luckily for our waistlines, I gave away all but six or eight pieces of candy.
    I sat on the porch in my witch’s hat with my GSD service dog lying by my side.
    One little boy was totally breathless about my dog. He started talking about how policemen use those dogs.
    I told him that I use my dog, too. He excitedly told me “That’s called a service dog, my teacher told us!”
    I explained that my dog is a special kind of service dog called a mobility dog, because he helps me to get around. I encouraged him to pet the dog, since he’s at home and not working.
    The little guy was crowing that he was going to tell his teacher – “I saw a real service dog and I even touched one!”
    I think that we made his Halloween really special. He might have been more excited about my dog than the candy.
    My dog got a treat, too. One family came by with their little Scottie dressed in a Superman dog costume. The two dogs got to happily sniff each other and play in the front yard for a bit.
    All in all, a good time was had by everyone tonight!

  3. chigau (違う) says

    I haven’t counted but it looks like about 40 tiny chocolate bars and a dozen packets of Cheezies.
    And that’s with me matching eating and giving.

  4. chigau (違う) says

    Cuttlefish
    I hope the students were also dressed up.
    It should count toward their final grade ;)

  5. Cuttlefish says

    Sadly, no. Just me. Some, though, were off with their kids, trick-or-treating. Right choice, I gotta say.

  6. magistramarla says

    Cuttlefish,
    When I was teaching, the school wouldn’t allow any of us to dress up.
    I got around it by meeting my kids at the door on the first day of school dressed as Metella, the female character in our Latin textbooks.
    The first year kids started out the year thinking that I was a little weird, and by the end of the year they knew that I was definitely weird!

  7. Markita Lynda—threadrupt says

    Different games show up depending on which two items you drop into the cauldron.

    I handed out candy to 27 children and one adult. Some of the costumes were really cute.

  8. says

    four pounds of Tootsie Roll,that big bag at Target,five box’s of Little Debbie Bat Brownies.
    i put that into a big somewhat battered camping kettle along with some deer bones and raccoon tails and tell the kids to reach in and take what they want.the lure of sweets removes all traces of fear—-

  9. youresocraycray says

    Hey PZ, I was wondering how to email you? It’s off topic here but I was gonna send you this link: looks like some people are talking about you online, LOL. About evopsych, no less :/

    Personally evopsych leaves a bad taste in my mouth because I’ve looked at the ‘manosphere’ so much, but eh.

    http://sguforums.com/index.php/topic,46528.0.html

  10. blf says

    Sliced-up and pan-fried one of the early ones for dinner, five more are in the freezer, and one’s in the slow-cooker for tonight’s dinner.

  11. JohnnieCanuck says

    blf,

    So they end up not so much on your lawn as having their bones and entrails buried under it.

    Fiendishly clever.

  12. blf says

    BURP!
    Yep. High-quality protein, delivered fresh to your door, for free, at a time when you are likely to be in. They even bring various snacks with them, but sadly, no vin

  13. mordred says

    First Halloween in the new place, a bit outside the village on a road with no streetlights.
    Got no visitors.
    Kids these days!

  14. says

    In a spectacular display of displaced enthusiasm for American cultural tradition, there was a guy in a scream mask walking around my hotel restaurant in Bangkok last night trying to scare the kids. Also, the head waiter was wearing a pseudo-bloodstained white t-shirt. I was not overly impressed.

  15. says

    4 full bags of candy purchased for the little sprogs.

    4 full bags of candy remaining at the end of the night. No children came around – I maybe heard one or two in the hall, but that was it.

    Oh well, now my workmates get to reap the benefits of leftover candies.

  16. Ogvorbis: Apologies Available for All! says

    Wife and I kinda hid in our house last night.

    I did see one costume though that made me want to stay in. Man dressed in medical garb, holding a dismembered doll soaked in blood, with a sign over his head: “Obama’s Abortionist”.

    Anyway, enjoy leftover candy.

  17. nora says

    We live in a townhouse next to an apartment complex so get a lot of kids. We gave away about ten bags of the “fun size” candy bars, minus our nibbling.

    It was fun but I was a little sad to see so many princess costumes. I don’t get that. I never wanted to be a princess when I was a little girl, although I thought it might be fun to be the Queen of the World.

  18. says

    A bunch of kids of various sizes came by. A lot of them liked the skeleton we had standing in the front hall, under the ceiling light changed to a green bulb. (*Very* realistic posable skeleton. Used a guitar stand to prop it up). Then some of the local CFI bunch showed up, mostly in costume, bearing edibles and potables of suitable ethanol content, and we jeered at “Mutant Vampire Zombies from the ‘Hood” on Netflix, followed by a bunch of disturbing Youtubes (Salad something-or-other).

  19. Akira MacKenzie says

    We don’t have any kids of trick-or-treating age on our street, and no one from any of the nearby subdivisions venture our way. Still, we keep a bag of Snickers on hand, just in case.

    Since I was home yesterday, there were non-stop monster movies on the boob-tube. TCM had a marathon of Chris Lee movies all morning, which I leavened with movies from my own DVD collection (e.g. “Hellboy,” “Solomon Kane,” “The Call of Cthulhu,” etc.). It was fun!

  20. a_ray_in_dilbert_space says

    We live about a quarter mile off the main road (which has no sidewalk and is unlit) out in the country. We haven’t had a trick-or-treater in the 11 years we’ve lived there. If one stopped by, we’d probably have to either break of a square of dark chocolate or give them an apple.

  21. jeffreylewis says

    We live in the neighborhood in town that’s gotten the reputation as the pace to go on Halloween, so we had a few hundred trick or treaters. We didn’t count, but it was less than the year where one of our neighbors counted 800 kids at his house (and he ran out of candy at least half an hour before us), but more than last year. I think last year’s traffic was so low because it was a Wednesday, and a lot people down here in Texas go to church on Wednesday’s in addition to Sundays. Anyway, we all dressed up, had some friends over to help give out candy, and had a good time.

    Honestly, as far as candy haul goes, we’re not really the best neighborhood to go to. With as many kids as we get, we have to ration candy (we spent around $100 on candy as it was). But I suppose it’s worth it for the atmosphere, since it’s kind of one big neighborhood party.

  22. opposablethumbs says

    No kids ever brave the long, dark, overgrown and unlit path up three lots of stairs and round two blind corners plus a blind bend to get to this house. Never, not ever. Hard-bitten taxi and minicab drivers and delivery people – full-grown adults – have been known to refuse to come up here after dark. This is …. the spooky house. Bwahahahahah. (also, the dog tends to be a bit … emphatic. She can’t help it, poor love, she had a traumatic puppyhood before we got her from the rescue centre).

  23. Rich Woods says

    @magistramarla #7:

    I got around it by meeting my kids at the door on the first day of school dressed as Metella, the female character in our Latin textbooks.

    Tell me you called your service dog Cerberus!

    Heh. Cave canem.

  24. flatlander100 says

    123 trick-or-treaters came by last night. A new record for us. Beat the 115 we had last year.

  25. Menyambal --- inesteemable says

    I went in the local Walmart, and immediately saw a dozen shopping carts full of bagged Halloween candy, arranged in the aisle. It looked almost like they were giving it away. I grabbed some chocolate-covered stuff and checked the price … it was very cheap, so I got four bags.

    The aisle for seasonal stuff was stuffed with Christmas candy.