Lolol Ken ..here may be part of the reason I am not find of this event. I was ten years old going to my first Trick Or Treat - way out in the country with my male cousin and several of his male friends. It was pouring rain and was also having my very first Monthly..um female stuff...I was miserable and had no way to get back to cousins house on my own. I was very glad when there boys finally stopped and decided we would go home.. We have not had trick or treaters in 20 years.
For about 5 years, Halloween was my favorite holiday. My girlfriend and I would take off around one of several country blocks (up to 5 miles). The candy was not that important. It was the adventure. Being on your own. We were exhausted when we got back. I don't remember hearing of anyone driving their kids around when they were too little to go on their own back then. At my house it was an event you had to grow into... and out of.
I only recall the little ones going out with older siblings,not parents. When I was first a homeowner (late 70s), most of the kids were accompanied by an adult. I agree with you, there was a certain "rush" walking around untethered after dark, although there were crowds of other kids around (not that "other kids" meant safety.) When I would go Trick-or-Treat[ing], we would not only hit the neighborhood around home, we would go up the road to the apartment complex where Dispensers of Candy were more densely packed. As an adult, I now feel sorry for those apartment dwellers getting hammered by swarms of children. Those kids must have come from all across town. That could not have been a cheap holiday, feeding all those strangers' kids.
Dunno. Think about it for a second. Salad mix is great rabbit food. Rabbit food eaten by said rabbits produces rabbit poop. Rabbit poop is fantastic fertilizer and can fertilize the cacao trees in your back yard. Cacao trees and plants produce cocoa beans (or is it cocoa nuts) and cocoa beans produce chocolate ergo with one bag of salad you have Halloween chocolate all year long. In theory, all things imaginable work.
Not this year (2021)! Just got our Halloween outdoor decor out of the garage. Our front door has a very colorfully dressed skeleton that lights up. Two small strobe lights, that have spooky sounds to each on the front patio, along with a hanging skeleton. The strobe lights will be pointing up at the skeleton. Three electric pumpkins and two sets of Halloween lights to decorate around the front of the patio. If it's not too cold on Halloween evening, I may just put on my full Darth Vader costume. The one that cost us around $800, that was on sale from $1,500 in 2015. My chest lights up and so does my belt. IOW, I look darn near like I just walked off of the set of The Empire Strikes Back (1980). George Lucas and David Prowse would be very proud of how I look. In the first movie (1977), A New Hope, none of Darth Vader's lights (chest/belt) lite up and his helmet was a very dull black. Mine is very shiny. I also have a very functional "Dark Side" Light Saber that costs $125 from Walmart in 2016. With the cost of alterations for my costume, the costume itself and the Light Saber, we spent close to $1,200. Perhaps my wife will dawn her Storm Trooper "Female" costume. She looks very cool in it.
My father took Halloween very seriously. One year, when I was a young teen, he made a caveman outfit out of a mangy old fur coat, complete with mask, fright wig, gnarly rubber hands and feet and a plastic club. When trick-or-treaters walked down our long driveway, he'd jump out of the bushes and chase them. As we still went out trick-or-treating to our friends' houses and hung out all evening in groups, this was all over school the next day. I was so humiliated I didn't want to go to school, but Mom said I'd be laughing about it one day. Yep, Mom, that day came. I'd give anything to have my dad back, Halloween shenanigans and all. A lot of my old friends still talk about his capers and everyone loved him. He knew how to have a good time.