However, we did get a lot of teenagers that were there only to get the candy. No pretense of even trying to dress up. No manners either. No “Trick or Treat” and certainly not a “thank you.” It ticked me off so I decided to play my own Halloween trick. My dentist office gave me several boxes of envelopes of toothpaste samples. I hid them in the bottom of my candy bowl. If you were a polite kid you got candy from me. If you were a rude kid or teenager with a “gimmie gimmie I’m intitled because it’s Halloween” attitude I palmed an envelope of toothpaste into your candy bag.

Another friend of mine lived in the NEATEST neighborhood. At Hallowe’en, everybody went outdoors and stood around in front of their houses and around the streets socializing. That meant a) the kids were safely supervised by the much-ballyhooed “village,” and b) everybody young and old had a good time. One resident put on a pumpkin-carving contest. He would go out and buy pumpkins in bulk and invite neighbors to create their best jack-o-lanterns. Then he put up a scaffolding–he was some sort of contractor and had a lot of gear like that–that they used to display everyone’s creations. There would be 50 or 80 carved pumpkins with candles or chemical lightsticks glowing inside them…really awesome.

Not the sort of thing you expect to see in the big city. But there it was!