The Great Pumpkin

When we lived in Chicago, Halloween wasn't much of an event for the kid crowd since few kids lived in our neighborhood. Then in Pittsburgh, Halloween was also pretty low-key as since Squirrel Hill, our old neighborhood, had structured events that killed the trick-or-treating scene.

Our first few years in DC were somewhat different. Apparently, Georgetown is a destination for trick-or-treaters from around the area, so the first year, we were completely unprepared and ended up shutting our lights off early and hiding out from them. The second year, we had more candy, but not enough. So again, we quickly ended up hiding out from the swarms. But even still, our old street was slightly out of the way, so we didn't get innundated with trick-or-treaters.

This year, however, our neighbor warned Abby that she was always stunned by the amount of candy that she ended up giving out. We planned accordingly as we bought six bags of candy and stationed ourselves on the doorstep to hand it out. For a while, we had a grand time and things looked good - a smattering of visitors with parents who inevitably oo'ed and ah'ed over Teddy and Margaret (in her pumpkin suit.) Then, around 7:00, BAM. A huge run on our candy stock. Pack after pack of kids, all holding out their hands for candy. Looking up and down our street, you could see masses of kids going from one house to another. On the one hand, it was pretty cool since I got to comment on lots of interesting costumes and we got to socialize with various neighbors that we hadn't met. But on the other hand, we were also running low on candy. For a while Abby held out our basket to let the kids take their own candy until I pointed out that the more strategic kids were grabbing multiple items. Even after curtailing that behavior and getting restocked from our neighbors (including some from the haul that their kids accumulated), we ended up running out way too early. Something that we'll have to keep in mind next year.

What was really interesting about the trick-or-treat crowd was its composition. Two groups were particularly notable. The first was minority kids. That I understand - other parts of the city aren't very safe at night while the density of housing and affluence in G'town makes our neighborhood a good target for trick-or-treating. But the other large group involved Europeans. This group was identifiable by the languages that the parents in the background spoke as their kids grabbed candy from us along with the Coo-coo-coo's that the French women bestowed on Teddy. I have two theories about why these guys like Halloween. First, as befits European social programs, they like it when someone gives them something for nothing (or for very little effort.) Alternatively, they really like events that involve us Americans getting up off of our fat asses, actually moving around, and interacting with one another. Alas, my former French colleague has quit, so I won't be able to sort out those theories with her. (Given my first theory, that's perhaps for the best since it would clearly lead to a heated lunch discussion about European vs. US social programs.)