A note from the Decatur Police Department regarding Halloween…
Every Halloween, the Decatur Police Department has additional employees on duty throughout the entire City. To supplement regular staffing, additional Police Officers, Investigators, CAPS volunteers and Command Staff will patrol neighborhoods, parks, school properties, the Decatur Cemetery and business districts in marked patrol cars, unmarked cars, bicycles and on foot. During Halloween there is more vehicular and pedestrian traffic in residential neighborhoods, including many children who may be distracted and not paying attention. So please be extra cautious and aware.
Remember, if you have given out all your “treats” or you do not want to participate, turn off the front lighting at your home. Also, if you see or hear things that seem stranger than what you would expect from Halloween fun or it is later in the evening, call the Decatur Police Department at .
We want everyone to have a safe, fun and spooktacular Halloween. For safety tips, check out the following link to the “Playing it Safe on Halloween” brochure published by the National Crime Prevention Council.
http://www.ncpc.org/resources/
Happy Halloween!
After several years of watching Halloweens in Decatur and what’s gone right and wrong, here’s my take in addition to the above. Some may find this useful; others not. I understand that others may have a different take but please let’s not attack one another over an event that’s supposed to be fun, not one that ends up in injury or legal trouble.
My take:
– Once kids hit a certain age, e.g. 13 (fill in your own cut-off), it’s time to stop trick-or-treating. It’s better for teens to be at chaperoned parties or handing out candy to little ones or accompanying little ones. Roaming teens are inviting trouble, even if the particular teens in question aren’t seeking trouble or causing it in any way.
– Children who are still trick-or-treating should have an adult somewhere present–even if he/she is trailing, way, way, way behind or perhaps a home base with frequent telephone contact and adults keeping careful track. Things change quickly from an impromptu group to a gathering that attracts trouble.
– Alcohol is trouble on Halloween–prevent it from getting out among kids at all costs. Even if you are a parent that is ok with teens drinking carefully at home under their own parent’s supervision, keep alcohol under complete control on Halloween. It has a way of getting out among teens and pre-teens on Halloween and causing unforeseen trouble.
– Halloween events on the street, e.g. trick-or-treating, ought to end by 9 PM, especially on a school/work night when many folks have to get to sleep to get up real early the next morning. If there’s partying still to be done, it is considerate to take it indoors.
Agreed on the last one. Every year I get a couple of teenagers (who aren’t in costume BTW) ringing my bell after 9:30 despite the fact that all outside lights are off, the jack-o-lanterns have been extinguished, etc.
I’ll add a friendly reminder to the community at large: When trick-or-treating in a walkable neighborhood, it’s typically unnecessary to drive door to door. See you on the sidewalk!
….except on those few streets left in Decatur without sidewalks 🙁 . However, those streets especially don’t need extra cars. If you have to drive your children to a neighborhood, park and walk once you get there. Don’t trail your children in the car and add traffic congestion.
Maybe it is just my street, but I don’t recall ever seeing a car trailing children on Halloween. If I did, I think I might tell them to park the car and start working off some of the candy they were going to eat once they got home.
It’s a common phenomenon in parts of Oakhurst, that’s for sure.
happens every year at our Oakhurst home. i shouldn’t be as bothered by as i am, but it strikes me as ridiculously lazy unless the parent is handicapped.
Lazy and dangerous.
A lot of people come from Kirkwood,East Lake and other places to Oakhurst. In fact, 15 years ago, we only had kids from out of the neighborhood for the most part. That has not changed and has in fact gotten worse.
It is an epidemic in Avondale, I can tell you that.
I was going to add this point your very reasonable list above.
I am considering posting a sign this year: “Welcome to the neighborhood! Please park your car BEFORE trick or treating!!”
All of AHiD’s rules make some degree of sense to me, although I don’t have a huge problem with teens trick-or-treating as long as they are relatively respectful of the folks they are hitting up for treats and do not create general chaos in their roving. The vast neighborhood I grew up in was hardcore trick-or-treating territory and I have very fond memories of Halloween there as a kid, teen, and even as an adult helping my parents scare the crap out of trick-or-treaters before I moved out. When I got my college apartment in Athens, I thought I’d see some trick-or-treaters because there were families with kids in the complex, but none came. That made me sad. So I made little bags of candy and reverse trick-or-treated, hanging them on people’s doorknobs. In each subsequent house I’ve lived in, I’ve always been curious to see what kind of Halloween turnout we get, and it’s almost always disappointing. So I’m thankful for everyone that comes by. But there some ways you can piss me off:
• Do not come multiple times with a pathetically minor change to your costume, hoping I won’t recognize you. Yes, slouchy teen “pirate” with a head scarf, I’m somehow onto the fact that you were the slouchy teen “cowboy” with the bandanna over his face (but no other costume elements) from 45 minutes ago. No Reeses for you.
• If the porch lights are off, we’re off the map. 9:30 is our usual cutoff. Deciding to knock anyway (in the somewhat brazen hope that I would give you all of the candy we had left “because it is late and no one else is coming” — yes, this really happened) before I had kids would earn you an exasperated “Really, dude? Get out of here.” Now it will earn you the job of getting said kids back to sleep.
• If I see you actively helping to usher small kids around or otherwise being a good, upstanding kid, you WILL get extra candy.
• If I tell you to take two, I don’t mean two handfuls.
• DO NOT attempt to argue that taking extra candy is actually you looking out for us by “keeping you from eating it and getting too fat.” (Yes, this also really happened)
Love the idea of requiring late doorbell ringers to get “said kids back to sleep”. Justice should be served. Similar justice should go to folks who phone late for anything but urgent items. We have ill family members so cannot just unplug/turn off our phones. For non-urgent items, send an email or wait until a decent hour to call.
Not sure if you have an iPhone but the latest iOS has a customizable “Do Not Disturb” mode that allows you to set the phone to only allow through calls/texts from a contact list you specify, but otherwise remain silent. It is a Godsend for situations like yours.
You wake, you rock (as in back to sleep) is our rule. UPS no longer rings my doorbell….
I will never forget the Halloween a sweet teenager told me my dinner smelled good. I thanked him and offered him a plate. I was shocked that he took me up on my offer. Sweet kid and comes back each year.
Yes! I know where you live and don’t feel like cooking on Thursday!
Come on over J_T! Good beer on draft this year too.
My #1 rule:
Trick or treaters must have a greeting when I open the door – such as Trick or Treat or Happy Halloween. Don’t just stand there expecting candy. I will call you out on it and reserve my right to not give you a treat.
Sounds like it is not worth it to come to your house, especially for a shy child or disabled child or a child with a speech issue.
In the past two years, I have had a masked person with much older looking hands to reach into my candy bowl. Beware! Not sure what they are up to.
That happens every year.
A tip for new residents on Avery Street. Buy candy. LOTS of candy.
+1. That street is BONKERS on Halloween (and lots of fun!).
Ditto for Adair- must be something in those A streets…
And don’t come to my house trick or treating for your newborn in a stroller. Yes, this really happened.
Oh, I don’t begrudge new parents a little sugar high. They need all the help they can get. Plus this may be one of their few chances to get out of the house. And new parents can be overeager to do the kiddie things, not realizing that you don’t have to do it all in the first few months, you can spread it over 18 years.
But I would require that either the newborn or the parent wear at least a costume hat. The woolen beanies with fruit stems on them look real cute on newborns and bald Dads.
I forgot to mention that the mom was 16.
Eek. Yeah, those babies caring for babies scenes are beyond the realm of Miss Manners’ Halloween rules. It has occurred to me that we might want to hand out green and orange condoms to the teens who come to the door.
Last year we dressed up our then 7-month-olds and took them around to “trick-or-treat,” which was really just a chance to say hi to neighbors (and meet some new ones). Candy was offered but we generally declined. Will probably do the same again this year. Little guys can’t have candy, and as much as Mom and Dad would love some, we will be good (at least until it comes time to pig out on whatever the neighborhood kids leave us in the bowl).
Lump – don’t worry, you are not the person with the stroller Bulldog was mentioning. He and some others on here are making veiled references to the people who don’t live in our neighborhoods, but come to our neighborhoods (in cars filled with kids) once a year to trick or treat. This seems to me like another one of those first world problems. If it really bothers you, turn off the lights and skip the whole scene. Otherwise you should treat everyone in costume the same. Anything else is discrimination and I know none of us would do that.
And there it is. The only surprise is that it took so long to bring up the “outsiders in our neighborhood” discussion. I’ve read enough of Bulldogs posts to call B.S. on your claim that he/she is discriminating. In fact, it’s YOU that made an uncalled for connection between a 16 year old mother and people outside the neighborhood.
I feel like even if it’s a teen, as long as they’ve got the “spirit,” 🙂 I’m ok with that.
Last year we bought all the best chocolate candy (snickers, reece’s, heath bars, milk duds, etc.) and were overwhelmed with complaints from kids about our all-chocolate selection. “My mommy doesn’t let me eat chocolate” and “I don’t like chocolate- do you have anything else?” So… what is it that kids want?? We’re buying for the 4-8 year old crowd– those who come early and dressed in adorable costumes.
(Last year after about 7:30 pm we were hit with the parents-in-car/kids-without-costumes crowd, and so this year we plan to turn out the lights and go have drinks at the UJoint.)
Please tell me there aren’t really parents who allow their child to trick or treat, but don’t allow chocolate, even on a special occasion. I don’t believe it.
Lots of kids out there with dairy / nut allergies. Chocolate doesn’t work for everyone. I have one in my brood.
We used to trade at the end of the night and at school the next day. I feel like a child openly complaining to someone about what they are getting for free is just kind of rude and not really in the spirit of the festivities. But kids being caught up in the excitement, and as painfully honest as they are, I guess things can slip out.
NPR had a piece about chidren’s candy preferences several years ago. To my surprise, chocolate is not the preference of the ten and under crowd. Sour things are–Smarties, Nerds, Sour Patch, Skittles, Sweet Tarts, Starbursts, etc. Nonetheless, chocolate is the big seller–probably because parents do the buying.
I didn’t know about the NPR story but I can attest to its validity. My son and the neighbors all agree that gummies, Sour Patch, etc are much better than chocolate. I will happily eat any chocolate they feel is inferior.
As the parent of an eight year old boy I can tell you that he likes every pure sugar candy imaginable with bonus points if it’s gummy. Smarties, nerds, gummy bears, pixie sticks, candy eyeballs and worms, etc. Personally, if it’s not chocolate I don’t see the point, but the young’uns seem to live their straight sugar and red dye # whatever.
I confirmed this preposterous hypothesis with Arribita #2 – she preferes Nerds/Starburst/Skittles to “chocolate”.
Wow!
I agree with Willowmom – if it ain’t chocolate, it ain’t desert (or Halloween in this case.)
I have already secured the rights to any Butterfingers, as long as I switch it out with Nerds – that’s what I call a win-win!
I would Soup Nazi those kids….You get nothing!
I agree Walrus. That is so rude I cannot even fathom what adult would teach a child to be so ungrateful
Thanks for the suggestions, y’all. I guess I’ll buy smarties/nerds/etc. for the kids and chocolate for the “leftovers” the adults are “forced” to consume. (I tried the Soup Nazi thing last year and it didn’t really get me any points with the neighbors. I had to re-establish myself as a “nice neighbor” by becoming a frequent customer at the popsicle stand over the summer.)
Halloween is tough for us families without little kids– not only are we (apparently) clueless about what kind of candy is cool, we aren’t familiar with any of the popular characters of the day and so we don’t recognize half the costumes. I’ve heard that we will see a lot of “minions” this year but I don’t know what that means. Anybody able to provide a short form guide to the popular costumes I am likely to see?
-Avengers
-Duck Dynasty (don’t ask…)
-“Despicable Me” varieties (that’s the minions)
-Still seeing “Scream” costumes around
-Batman, Superman, etc. of course
If it involves Miley Cyrus or twerking, I suggest you slam the door immediately.
“If it involves Miley Cyrus or twerking, I suggest you slam the door immediately”
Damn. I have been practicing her moves all week!
A grown (presumably somewhat hairy) man , a tiny rubber bikini, big foam finger, and some twerking. Somewhere there is a festival for that. But in the meantime, please forward a pic of this to DM for our gawking pleasure Friday. A real man would follow through on this Dawg.
Based on our informal polling, we will be handing out Hot Cheetos and Takis.
http://youtu.be/7YLy4j8EZIk
I would just say tough. Talk about a first world problem. Bratty parents and kids. Unless the kid has an actual live allergy, parents have no right and place in a world of manners to tell kids to ask for something else. How rude. That is appalling.
Can we discuss favorite costumes from years past? And does Moey still dress up? (I hope that is the right name – the cute little boy that had awesome costumes each year – went as a polling place once I think, and KISS another year)
We are fans of the kids/teens that dress as Monty Python and the Holy Grail and look forward to seeing them each year. Hope they are still around!
Old hands reaching into bowls, kids grabbing way more than the two pieces you’ve suggested, trick-or-treaters complaining about the brand or type…there is an easy way to fix all of that. I don’t let hands into the bowl…I grab a couple out myself and toss them in the bag. Done deal.
Patch has a poll on “How old is too old for trick or treating?”
_10-12 years old
_13-15 years old
_16 and older
_Trick-or-treating should be banned
_You’re never too old for trick-or-treating
_Other
The question is misworded so that the responses are not mutually exclusive but it is still an interesting poll. (If one is too old at 13, one is still too old at 16. The question should have been something like “At what age does one become too old to trick or treat?) The “13-15 years old” response has the most votes when I checked, consistent with my views.