Article: Halloween May Be Revitalized Next Year

I would like to thank those of you out there that continue to take the fun out of Halloween for me. But maybe next year it will be better.

First, I would like to thank those of you that prey on the young. Why don't you pick on somebody your own size? But at least the police keep you on a short leash on Halloween. Hey parents, remember that. They are under lock and key. It's a lot safer now that the police know where they are and they keep a better check on them.

Second, to the people that lock themselves into their houses and pretend they are not home. When you do that, parents see that and figure that the rest of the people in the area aren't home so they won't drive to the area. Buy a big bag of small candy bars and give the kids a treat. I understand if you're a senior citizen on a fixed income but come on everybody is working 2 jobs now a days. Spend a few bucks on the kids. The first parent that came to our house said that no one was home in our development. My wife said that it's probably because no one was home from work yet. That's right, the first kid showed up at 445 PM. But our township has a 7 PM curfew. 7 PM!!! 7 PM!!! We used to stay out until 9 or 10 PM when we were kids and we usually had school the next day. No wonder no one was home.

Third, to the schools that cancelled their annual Halloween parades this year because it wasn't safe to have their kids, with all those parents outside watching the kids, parading outside the school. You don't have a police force in your communities that couldn't have at least 1 police officer come to watch the parade for the little amount of time it took for the parade? I have seen the police do many community jobs like that on television before. What a public relations job that would be.

And finally to the media, especially the television media for scaring the wits out of the parents for constantly reminding the parents of all the sexual predators that are out there at Halloween. I know it's your job to do it but don't you think that once is enough. Do you really have to inundate the airways with the constant announcements about how sexual predators will get your kids? So then the amount of children that have come to my door in the 11 years since I have been in New Jersey have slowly dwindled down.

The first year we had to raid the pantry because we ran out of candy. We had made up 25 bags of candy. We just don't give out 1 small candy bar. We put 5 or 6 of the small bars and a few little pieces in a sandwich bag with an address label on it so the parents will know that the candy is good. Even we succumb to the old urban legends of putting pins in candy bars by putting our address labels on the bags. We ran out so we had to give out Rice Krispy Treat bars from our pantry. The next year the same thing happened. Then I stopped giving candy out because my wife had to work for the next few years and it wasn't as fun without her, hearing all those kids outside. I know. I told you to stop holing up before. But that's why I said it. I stopped doing it. Then we started again 3 years ago and made up 50 bags. We gave out 8. We gave the rest to a local church that was having a kid's party. The next year we made up another 50 bags and we gave out 5. There were no parties in the area so my wife took them to work. This year we cut back and only made up 25. My wife scolded me because she thought that we would need more. I told her we had enough. We actually had an increase in the number. 13, but that was only 5 doorbell rings.

We try to add to our decorations every year. We don't have much room as we live in a condominium development and the grass area is small. We have a fence that we can hang some lights on and a tree that we hang things from and we have corn stalks on the columns, scarecrows and a hay bale on the porch. So this is as much fun for us as it is for the kids. And because of these problems I have written about, it is taking away from our holiday as it does from the kids. If I would have had a development near us like the one I live in now when I was a child, it would be a bonanza for us. So to the parents, the police have the predators under constant surveillance so I think it's a lot safer. To the media, dial it down a few notches, will ya!!! Stop scaring these people. And I'm hoping with the time changing to the first week in November next year, (Fall back, Spring ahead) maybe that will help invigorate the Halloween holiday a little bit to when I was a little boy. The kids will have more light to play with. And hopefully my township will bump up the curfew a little bit so that the people coming home from work will get the chance to see the kids so that they will return to our development so I can stop feeding my wife's fellow employees.