How old were you when you last went trick-or-treating?

[This user has not been convicted of 34 felonies]

17 (i'm 18 now)

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

11

[Fed. Pac. Chairman Devin]

I just did so 18.

[dead0man]

11 or 12 (not counting going out with kids or younger siblings, not sure why a person would but several people have mentioned it....odd)


For the asshats going out after they got pubic hair, what percentage of people tell you to f@ck off?

[retromike22]

I don't know if this is an L.A. thing but... lots of adults here go trick or treating, even if they don't have kids. What's frowned upon is when you don't have a costume, or if your costume is very lazily put together.

[Boston Bread]

I just did so 18.

[Tender Branson]

Never, because it's un-Austrian.

Some cities here even passed Halloween-bans because of recent years damages to private property and police will round up the kids and their parents and charge them for any damages.

[Oakvale]

Last year, when I was 27. I plan to go again tonight with my friends

You're 28, you should not be trick or treating. That's really creepy.

Although to be fair, he (retromike22) does look a lot younger than he actually is. I was really shocked when I learned he was 28. He looks 19.

yea trick or treating if he was 19 wouldn't be creepy at all

[Eraserhead]

11

[RR1997]

Last year, when I was 27. I plan to go again tonight with my friends

You're 28, you should not be trick or treating. That's really creepy.

Although to be fair, he (retromike22) does look a lot younger than he actually is. I was really shocked when I learned he was 28. He looks 19.

yea trick or treating if he was 19 wouldn't be creepy at all

It's less creepy than trick-or-treating at the age of 28 at least.

[morgieb]

I never did it. Not a thing down here, or at least it wasn't when I was a kid.

I'm pretty sure I'm older than you... It wasn't huge in the 90s, but the kids in the street did it in 1992-1994

Hmmm I didn't notice it much when I was a kid. Maybe it had to do with my part of Sydney.

[DemPGH]

10 or younger - I think I went once when I was 7 or 8 and thought meh. When I was 9-12, usually my buddies would come over and we'd start watching horror movies of the day and end up playing Nintendo most of the night. That was more fun.

These days I find that the lead-up to a holiday is more fun than the holiday. Like all those 1950s and 1960s horror movies TCM has been showing. Great stuff!

[angus]

For the asshats going out after they got pubic hair, what percentage of people tell you to f@ck off?

So far, zero.  Not sure why anyone would need to.  If you don't want the business, you leave your porch light off.  If you do want them, leave it on.  At least that's the custom in all the neighborhoods I've lived in.  Just last night, in fact, we had a wonderful time wandering about and collecting candy.  I was out for nearly two hours and, except for one foul-mouthed girl shouting--playfully I suspect--at her boyfriend, I did not notice any tension.  (Both of them appeared old enough to have a full shock pubic hair, but I did not perform an inspection so I can't be sure.)

Every Halloween I take my son around the neighborhood.  Last night was no exception.  I donned the same pirate get-up I wear every year:  black bandana, eyepatch, big loop earring, toy-store cutlass (or is it a sabre?), frilly white shirt with top three buttons open and collar up, brown vest, stockings, Doc Martens slightly modified by me to resemble swashbuckler boots, and black Capri pants (which at night vaguely resemble marauder pantaloons).  All except the cutlass and Doc Martens are from the Salvation Army Store and they're actually women's clothing, but it looks very much like a pirates costume and cost me less than five dollars for the whole outfit (except the shoes).  My son was a ninja warrior.  He had props as well.  Nunchucks, sai, and a sword.  His outfit is all black, so I have to make sure he gets out of the way of cars.  Normally one would not expect many, but mine is the sort of neighborhood where all manner of people, typically from less manicured districts, show up every Halloween in their rickety cars to drop off their unruly children so that they can roam the neighborhood only to become hyperactive from the sugar and cacao resin.  The conspicuous cars then swing back through the neighborhood to pick the children up an hour or two later, so that at any time there's a car or two navigating the thoroughfares, threading through the dense, bizarrely-clad, pedestrian thicket on what would be on any other night quiet residential streets.

We set off at promptly 6pm, each of us taking a large sack with us, and we returned home about an hour and 45 minutes later.  Both of us came home with our sacks heavy from candy.  His was more full than mine, because mostly I just stand at the curb while he goes to the door.  Nevertheless, about a quarter of the time the homeowner insists upon giving me candy as well.  "C'mon, don't be shy; you come get some candy too.  You're in costume."  Sometimes they point out that they like my pirate costume, to which I feel compelled to answer "Avast, matey!" or some such nonsense in a raspy, rum-addled Cornwall accent.  Last night there were quite a few treats!  One man gave me a 500-mL bottle of purified water, which I promptly drank (and soon thereafter found myself looking for an obscure place among the trees in order to relieve my bladder), and another was giving out full-size, 2.76-ounce Snickers bars.  Another passed out full-size Hershey's Bars.  Another had big granola bars and one house even had little bags of pretzels.  Except for the water, the pretzels, the big candy, the granola bars and anything with coconut, mine will all be placed in a big bowl and distributed to my students on Monday.  I really don't have much of a sweet tooth, although from time to time I do eat candy.

Someone was also giving out glow sticks, and another was giving out pencils.  I like those, but apparently some people don't.  I overheard one middle-aged guy saying "A pencil?!  How the hell are we going to eat that?" to his two young boys.  Of course he was one of those too-cool-to-dress-up-for-Halloween dads.  Probably doesn't live with his children.  Probably he lives in Philadelphia with his new 21-year-old girlfriend and comes out here to be part-time Dad every other weekend which gives him a chance to purchase his sons' affection.  He was wearing blue jeans, sneakers, an Eagles cap, and a greying Evil Spock beard.  I don't think he was dressed up as Douchebag Dad; instead, I think that he was just being himself.  Actually, costumed chaperones are in a minority.  I'd estimate that about 2/3 of the grownups who accompany their children do not dress in costume for Halloween.  I notice that those types are never invited to accept candy at the doors.  The assumption must be that if you're too cool for costumes, then you're too cool for candy.  Honestly, I probably wouldn't get dressed up for it either, except that my son insists so I play along.  There will come a day when he is too cool to go trick-or-treat with his Daddy, so I tend to enjoy these times while they still exist.  Already last night when he saw his friends he often wandered with them for a while and forget all about me.
 
When we get home, he promptly pours out all his and all my candy onto the carpet and arranges it into three big piles of roughly equal volume.  One for Mama, one for Daddy, and one for him.  My wife will probably distribute her share to her students on Monday.  Well, most of it.  She has a bit of a sweet tooth and has already picked out all the Girardelli and Truffles and York Peppermint Patties and other sweet chocolates.  I mainly just like the Mounds and Almond Joy.  Anything with coconut.  My son does not eat chocolate or coconut.  Actually, he doesn't like the smell of chocolate, although I don't think he has ever actually tasted it to see if he likes it.  He's picky about food, generally.  Still, there's plenty of tooth-rotting booty for him:  Twizzlers, Jolly Ranchers, Lemon Heads, Nerds, Pop Rocks, Dots, Dum Dums, Starburst, Skittles, Laffy Taffy, and the like.  I only let him eat a couple per day so he'll probably have enough to carry him through till next Halloween.

[Goldwater]

I don't recall. I never really liked trick-or-treating. After all, why walk from door to door in the cold to get few pieces of candy that you may or may not like, when you can just convince your parents to buy you a bag of your favorite candy?

[Cassius]

I've never been trick-or-treating, largely because my parents thought that Halloween was rather silly, and of course I'd have been too old for trick or treating after I passed the age of 10 or so. Anyway, I hate Halloween with a passion. I mean, if we're going to have a corporate-sponsored opportunity for people to have a piss-up and generally behave like idiots, at the very least can't it be derived from a nice, wholesome Christian festival, in the way Christmas is, rather than some bizarre amalgamation of the horror genre and neo-paganism.

[ElectionsGuy]

10

[Frodo]

16 or 17 -I know I was in high school at the time.  And I quit doing it after a lady complained that my Dracula costume was too scary for the little kids.   

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

No one tells a tale in 2000 words or more better than angus.

#goangus
#drunkposting
#fuckoffwannabees

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Angus is one of this century's superb story tellers.

[BaconBacon96]

Never, like a good Australian.

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

13ish. Don't remember exactly.

[Frodo]

I've never been trick-or-treating, largely because my parents thought that Halloween was rather silly, and of course I'd have been too old for trick or treating after I passed the age of 10 or so. Anyway, I hate Halloween with a passion. I mean, if we're going to have a corporate-sponsored opportunity for people to have a piss-up and generally behave like idiots, at the very least can't it be derived from a nice, wholesome Christian festival, in the way Christmas is, rather than some bizarre amalgamation of the horror genre and neo-paganism.

I suggest you read these to become better acquainted with your own religion:

Christianity: The Origins of a Pagan Religion -by Philippe Walter

Pagan Christianity? Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices -by Frank Viola and George Barna

[dead0man]

For the asshats going out after they got pubic hair, what percentage of people tell you to f@ck off?

So far, zero.  Not sure why anyone would need to.  If you don't want the business, you leave your porch light off.  If you do want them, leave it on.  At least that's the custom in all the neighborhoods I've lived in.  Just last night, in fact, we had a wonderful time wandering about and collecting candy.

His was more full than mine, because mostly I just stand at the curb while he goes to the door.  Nevertheless, about a quarter of the time the homeowner insists upon giving me candy as well.  "C'mon, don't be shy; you come get some candy too.  You're in costume."  Sometimes they point out that they like my pirate costume, to which I feel compelled to answer "Avast, matey!" or some such nonsense in a raspy, rum-addled Cornwall accent.  Last night there were quite a few treats! 

I'm not talking about old dudes going out with their kids.  I did that when mine were younger (though even when I went in costume, I was never invited up to a door for some candy of my own....but I didn't carry a bag so that might be it), I was talking about the 16+ year olds wearing a mask or no costume at all.  Just out for free candy or worse, shenanigans.

[angus]

shenanigans.

There was little of that.  No eggs or toilet tissue anyway, but some bizarre singing by a pack of teenage boys.  Also, I caught a distinct whiff of the ganja at some point.  And of course there were those two 18ish youths, alternating between bouts of tongue-wrestling and bouts of argument.  She had a straw hat, red dots on her cheeks, and cut-off shorts that were far too short for the cold weather, although her exposed legs made for a pleasant sight.  He had a straw hat and farmer's overalls.  I expect that their tension was relieved in some clumsy but spectacularly satisfying way later in the evening.  I don't really mind teenagers doing the trick-or-treat thing.  I can think of worse things that they could be doing besides contributing to their own tooth decay. 

For the most part it's a quiet white-collar neighborhood, so the shenanigans aren't too outrageous.  When I lived in Columbus, Mississippi--you may recall that I moved there from California about a year after I started posting here and stayed there nearly three years--I found bits of egg and eggshells on my Mercedes-Benz on the morning of November 1.  It caused small but permanent damage to the paint.  Really made me angry.  That sort of thing hasn't happened around here.

Normally my wife stays home and hands out candy.  This year she worked late, so my son and I had set out two carved pumpkins before we went out.  I did one with a traditional face done using triangles and other simple geometries.  He did a very intricate bat.  He found some patterns on line and at first I discouraged it, thinking it would be too difficult, but he insisted.  I told him, "well, you're on your own" so he took a black sharpie and carefully drew the design on the pumpkin, nearly exactly as it appeared on the monitor.  Then he proceeded to cut it out.  To my surprise he pulled it off.  No stray cuts or mistakes.  Anyway, we placed those on the porch and set candles in them and left the porch light on and put our candy--skittles, snickers, starburst, and M&Ms--in a big bowl with a sign that said "Take one."  About 30 minutes into our walk, I left him briefly with two of his chums and jogged back to the house and saw that the candy was completely gone.  So much for "take one."  At that point I turned off the porch light and blew out the candles and ran back to rejoin him.  We ended up collecting a larger mass of candy than we handed out, I think.  Certainly a greater variety.

[Bigby]

14 - 15. During High School I just helped my parents pass out candy and I got some in return. Now I just dress up for Halloween due to the bar parties.