"Trick or Treat" ... or "Scaredy Cat"?

I can't say that I was surprised ... although I was disappointed ... that I welcomed no "Trick or Treaters" at my doorstep this year.

I live in a culdesac in a univiersity townm, and I really didn't expect to receive any children at my front door ... encased in bizare costumes and yelling "TRICK OR TREAT!" when I responded to their knock.

It's a scary world out there, and parents are disposed to keep their children at home on this night which was expected (in my day) to be more treats to the kids, and a few tricks to curmudgeons.

I was forewarned this afternoon when I went to the store to buy candy for my neighborhood children (of whom there are only two ... it's a college town) and the shelves were FILLED with delectables.

I chose my favorite ... peanut butter in chocolate (AKA "Reese's Peanut Butter Cups" (miniatures), because they're individually wrapped, delicious, and because ... if nobody showed up, I like them as an occasional snack.

Good choice.   They're individually wrapped, and if the trick-or-treaters are too thick, I can give them only three, rather than the five or six (depending on degrees of "cuteness" their costumes displayed).

Nobody showed up.

I know have enough Peanut Butter Cups to last me for some time.

I don't blame the parents; there have been so many scarey stories about razor blades in apples,  and poisons in candy, that it's a rare parent who will let a child go Trick-or-Treating when escorted, let alone without parental guidance

I'm not going to beat the dead horse of "poisoned apples", because you've heard all the stories.

I'm just disappointed that our society has changed so much that we are no longer "comfortable" allowing our children to go outside after dark and portune our friends and neighbors for ... 
Treats.


There are only two children in my lonely Cul-de-Sac, and if I thought it would be appreciated, I would go to their door in the morning and offer all of my candy treats to them ... just to show them that their Neighbors adore and appreciate their play-time, their childish squeals of glee during play, their spats, their homely dog (whose name I don't even know, but he's a lop-eared mongrel who enjoys more love than he has earned), and their youthful enthusiasm.

We don't get enough of that last part: enthusiasm is a fading economy, and we need to encourage it.

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I would knock on their door, offer all my accumulated "TREATS" for their children.  If only to demonstrate a spirit of neighborliness, and to show that they could have trick-or-treated at one door, at least, and been safe.

But their parents would reject my overtures, in defense of their children .., politely, I'm sure.
Yet firmly.  And I would go home with a fistful of melting chocolate dollars, and everyone would be sad.

Because we no longer trust our neighbors, who are strangers.
And we no longer start the morning by hand-watering our lawn and shouting "Hellow, Neighbor" across the street.

In my day, "our children" were "everyone's children", and we watched over them as if they were our kin.  Today .. awww, I don't want to think about it.

It sickens me the way we treat America's Children.   when they don't know, or trust their neighbors, then there's some endemic sickness in America which we're too frightened to confront.

And that's all I have to say about that.

(Say, anybody want a bag of peanut-butter-and-chocolate candy?  It's really, good.  You'll like it!)