Reply #1: Mine, too. There were packs of costumed kids

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

running all through the neighborhood, mostly without parents except for the very little ones. We were turned loose in our costumes with instructions to be home by 8:00, so we'd gather in a bunch and go house to house yelling Trick or Treat! And then we'd go home and dump our haul on the living room floor and pick out the best stuff and throw away the popcorn balls... Now I see only maybe a couple of dozen kids all evening, and there's almost always a parent standing back on the sidewalk, watching. I wonder if those kids have as much as we did?