Remember the scene in ET where all the kids were trick or treating?

[Roon]

That was what my neighborhood looked like when I was growing up. Not anymore though!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Mine, too. There were packs of costumed kids

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?

[Roon]

2. Probably not.

and the worst vandalism I ever saw in all those years was smashed pumpkins.

[Brickbat]

3. Our town does that. It's awesome.

[Roon]

4. Nice.

We have a business strip that spans a few blocks and every saturday before halloween, the merchants all do trick or treating. It's during the day and you can see the costumes!

[murielm99]

5. My neighborhood was like that when I was a kid.

I was a boomer, and there were hordes of kids. We lived in a newer subdivision, and there were very few older, retired people, and very few families with teens. Almost everyone had kids in elementary school, or at most, junior high. Dang, there were a lot of us!

Actually, there are some streets in my town that are still like that. I live in a small town. Parents do go out with kids, but one parent, or a baby sitter, will take charge of a half dozen or so. Some of the streets are packed with kids for the entire evening.

[HopeHoops]

6. Ours still does. We had a SHITLOAD of kids last night. Fortunately, I had plenty of candy.

[Blue_Tires]

7. mine, too

i also get nostalgic seeing the interior decor of their house...great memories -- on the inside it was similar to a couple of my friends' houses

[kick-ass-bob]

8. That's what mine looks like now!

And I love the houses that have "treats" for the adults too - if you know what I mean.

There are beer wagons too. This is my second Halloween in this neighborhood. My last neighborhood had about 8 children in it and the driveways were about 1/4 mile long. SOOOO much different.

[cyberswede]

9. We get about 300 kids

...and trick-or-treating only lasts for 1 hour. Tons of fun! :)

[realisticphish]

10. I'm 25, and when I was a kid

it was still like that. Now, though, they start at frigging 5:30, and end before the sun goes down. The movement of DST doesn't help, but c'mon.

At least start at 7, so its dark when you're done