Let’s assume you don’t remember before you are 5 years old, and you quit after you’re 12. That’s like 8 times you can remember going trick-or-treating your whole life.
My cousin is still carrying her Halloween grudge against her sisters. This is like her only Halloween story, and it goes like this:
"I was like maybe 8 years old? It was some age when both candy and presents were really important to me. And I got chicken pox just before Halloween. [nb: This was before there was a vaccine.] I begged my parents, but they wouldn’t let me go out trick-or-treating; their concession was that they’d send my sisters out with a spare pillowcase.
"Only on their way home, my sisters stopped a couple houses up the street and dumped all three pillowcases into piles on the sidewalk, and then proceeded to ‘exchange’ all my chocolate for their Bit 'o Honey’s and Mary Jane’s.
"They got home and I eagerly went for my candy, only to be confronted by this travesty of all the bad candy. I complained to my parents, who told me to be quiet and just be happy that I got any candy at all.
"A couple months later, both my sisters got chicken pox as well. Except by then it was Christmas, so my grandparents said it was horrible to be sick over Christmas and bought them both extra presents.
“Anyway, that’s my childhood grudge that I’m never letting go of: that when I was sick, all my good candy was stolen, and when they were sick, they got extra presents.” And then she always ends it: “So - what’s your childhood grudge that you’re not letting go of?”
In 5th grade (1995 or so?) there was a total solar eclipse going over our school RIGHT DURING RECESS, and they made EVERYONE stay inside at our desks and miss the whole thing so we wouldn’t burn our eyes out looking at it. So on top of missing the eclipse, we also missed recess.
I was furious. I did not get to see a total solar eclipse for another 20+ years.
Oh, wow. Yeah, I’m with you - I’d still be pissed!
My school grudge was that I bought a 30GB ipod with the money I got from the death of my grandpa, which was mad money for something I cherished. Anyway, I took it to school all the time and during one P.E. lesson I came back to my belongings and my ipod was gone, so the most likely suspect was someone from my class, as the gym/changing rooms was seperate from the main concourse of the school and it was mid-lesson. I couldnt tell my parents, and i couldnt buy another, so I spent months and months not eating in school to save up dinner money for a replacement to hide it from my family, only to learn, after a long time, that my debit card wasnt accepted on apple’s website. (I think my dad bought it with my money originally).
So I just had to go with lies and such for ages, then about a year and a half later, in another P.E. lesson, it just appeared in my shoe. So someone knew what was mine enough to return it. And all anyone in class did was laugh at the idea that it was in my shoe the whole time… I never found out who did it but a trusted friend that had no relation to the lessons suggested that maybe someone nicked it until their parents saw them with it and they lied and said I leant it to them, which sounds the most likely explanation to me.
Still annoys me. I dont believe in an afterlife, but if there is such a place, I’ll be skipping the tutorial to run to the place that let’s you review the world from any point in history so I can see that changing room on the day my ipod went missing.
I’d hold that grudge.
God damn I am holding that grudge.
I grew up where there were three houses.
I didn’t go trick or treating much
Okay fair, but I think the best memories are made with your kids.
Don’t have kids? You probably have friends who do and would love a night off.
As a kid. Taking your kids as a parent is fun too.
I went out till I was done highschool.
The trick was you had to have a better costume each year.
I give candy to anyone of any age in a costume. Halloween is for everyone.
Here in Italy we experience this stuff exactly ZERO times 🤓
You’re missing … well, nothing that cannot be had many other ways. A sense of your neighborhood being awesome instead of just, “a neighborhood” is cool. Though the weird need to go to every door and and expect candy or a trick is … weird as hell, IMO.
So many other ways that can be more often than annual to create that cool sense of actual community.
The candy is awesome as hell as a kid, but as an adult it’s an obnoxious obligation that only serves to line the pockets of shithole “candy” peddlers like Hershey’s and Mars, here. Would love to see that replaced with anything more cultural than, “SuGaR tAsTe GOoD”.
You sure are taking this, uh, serious. It’s fun for everyone involved and if you don’t want your doorbell rung, you leave the porch light off. Trick or treating is pretty much dead in a traditional sense, so there’s that too.
