Happy Halloween! Last year, I posted on the "immigrant trick-o-treater" phenomenon and how I have made a decision to embrace all comers to my door on this one night a year where we pretend we live Norman Rockwell existences where we show up unannounced at our barely familiar neighbors' doors and are treated with hospitality. Some in the comments were unconvinced, but I remain of the mind that giving a nickel's worth of candy to a child whose parents drove her over to my neighborhood is the (very) least I can do to show thanks for the amazingly safe and comfortable life I lead. In fact, I have met at least one reader who told me that last year's post changed his mind on the topic.
So, start celebrating Thanksgiving a little early, count your blessings, and stock up on lollipops.
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1. Posted by Andrew on October 31, 2006 @ 12:22 | Permalink
I completely agree with you on this front. Halloween is a fun night for kids, at least it supposed to be fun, and a chance to traipse around in your costume while collecting candy. Who cares if kids from other neighborhoods come into your area. As long as they are not causing any problems then give up the candy. Besides when you run out of candy thats it.
2. Posted by Jeff Lipshaw on October 31, 2006 @ 18:16 | Permalink
When I saw the headline, I thought you meant REAL immigrant trick or treaters.
When our children were young, and we lived in the kind of neighborhood you described, our custom was to invite lots of people over for Halloween. I would leave work early and make my world famous chili, we'd have the candy corns, roasted pumpkin seeds, and I would usually have some kind of costume (clown, Groucho Marx, etc.)
In the late '80s, when the Jewish migration from the former Soviet Union was heavy, we volunteered in a program in Detroit called "Family to Family" where we were matched up with a recently arrived family. They arrived in early December; we met them in mid-October, and on Halloween, they came to our house for trick or treating. Imagine the five year old new immigrant from Minsk (the same age as my daughter) being introduced to the U.S. and the first local custom you learn is that you walk from house to house and they give you candy!
3. Posted by Jeff Lipshaw on October 31, 2006 @ 18:17 | Permalink
Oops, a typo. They arrived in early September.
4. Posted by Kate Litvak on October 31, 2006 @ 22:21 | Permalink
Oh, spare me crocodile tears. Halloween is a neighborhood party, not a wealth-redistribution scheme. The point is for the community to get together and mingle in costumes, not to ensure that every poor child has candy. If your heart is bleeding that much, make sure to invite random strangers to your kid’s next birthday party.
5. Posted by anon on November 2, 2006 @ 14:20 | Permalink
TOTing is a contract. Offer: one or more pieces of candy, in my sole discretion, if you come to my door, recite "TOT!" and wear some semblance of a costume (or have a witty explanation of your ordinary clothes at the ready instead). My liability is limited to candy on hand, quantities not guaranteed. And it doesn't matter where you're from - whether another neighborhood or the loins of some loathesome character down the way.
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