Trick and Mistreat
Anyone that knows me knows I am a positive person. This post may change that perception a tad...
The last two days I witnessed a series of events unfold that really made me shake my head in disbelief and wonder just how society has come to arrive at this...
Friday October 29th was Trick or Treat night from 6-8pm where I live. Every year we go along with the kids and always visit the same blocks of houses close to our home.
This area is well kept with upper and upper/middle class families in close proximity. The lawns are manicured, the streets and sidewalks immaculate. It even seems as if everyone has those nifty mail boxes set in some kind of stone or rock statue.
We were out and about right at 6:00pm when it was still daylight and thought this was going to be the best year yet. By about 6:30pm it was turning to nightfall and it started...
Much like a scene from downtown NewYork suddenly there were cars everywhere and a stampede of children and adults alike! Neighborhood watch members started patrolling in golfcarts, a police car and emergency services vehicle were soon found in the mix.
Even with a new age limit of 12 imposed this year there were adults and obvious high-schoolers in costume swarming the houses for the free candy.
By the time we had walked (I had waddled) to the 3rd street there were now more police out directing traffic! Can you see what is REALLY happening here?
Obviously people from all over town knew this was a nice neighborhood so the residents must be able to provide all the GOOD candy - not those cheap bulk Walmart halloween bags for handing out treats...
So everyone in town DROVE their kids to this neighborhood for the goods rather than stick with their own areas. Piles of kids jumped from the backs of pickup trucks and much like clowns at a circus, you knew when a mini van door opened it would be a never ending line of sugar craving maniacs stumbling and screeching to the nearest door.
Infact the largest home in the area is a sprawling multi-million dollar estate owned by a neurosurgeon. It has a rather long driveway ending in an exotic fountain and rock garden which then circles under a massive canopy covering the entrance to the home. Rather than walk - this same caravan of lunatics DROVE up the long drive way and right up to the door of the home. Out popped the loonies from the pickup trucks and the minivans opened their doors and opened the floodgates. I half expected security officers to come running with uzi's in hand to mow down the threat and gaurd dogs dragging off the limp corpses still twitching from all the sugar...
It was a site not unlike the Night of the Living Dead (or an everyday trip to the local Walmart.) In the end, they all got the same cheap bulk Walmart halloween bag candy like they would have got at their own neighborhood. I know this because as we were leaving the carnage you could see candy strewn about as if discarded in disbelief and disgust at the size and quality.
Yard decorations, bushes and lawns were trampled. The immaculate sidewalks littered and a cloud of dust lingered over the once peaceful area.
Given the situation one resident in particular got the entrepreneurial bug and opened up a stand selling glow in the dark goodies to the trick or treaters. Hell if they are going to trash the neighborhood he ought to make a buck or two off of them right?
Enough about Friday, surely the kiddie parade on Saturday afternoon will be much better... WRONG!
Against our warnings (and better judgement) we let our boy/girl twins (10) enter themselves in the costume judging prior to the parade. Much like the night before we were there early and it seemed as if there would be little competition. Again much like the night before the wave of adults, high-schoolers, and little tots (still on a sugar high from the night before) came stampeding the area.
Who won in both the classes our kids were entered? Two individuals both at least 6 foot tall (not counting the costume). Gee I thought this was a kiddie parade...
Well surely the parade then must be better - but you already know the answer to this.
My wife waited at the end of the street filming the kiddie parade with our camcorder. She soon realized that she wasn't filming a kiddie parade, she was filming an adult parade. Not that many adults were dressed up, its just that there were so MANY adults you could hardly see the kids buried in the crowd. It looked like a human traffic jam coming from a baseball or football game!
She finally just shut the camera off until she caught a glimpse of the kids and turned it back on long enough to film them...
How is it we have come to this?
* Where people are afraid or too greedy to stick to their own areas for trick or treat...
* Where parents DRIVE their (and eveyone elses) kids down each street of each block posing a huge risk of running over some innocent child in the haste to get around a stopped vehicle in the street...
* Where the police have to dedicate precious resources to one area just to direct traffic that shouldn't be there anyway...
* Where someone decides to make a buck or two from the trick or treaters rather than give candy or other treats (they in fact were NOT handing out candy). Besides I thought parents were supposed to make sure the kids had flashlights or other means of being seen at night...
* Where older kids and adults win costume prizes in the "kiddie" parade...
* Where the kiddie parade becomes the adult parade...
Who is the biggest winner of this Halloween season?
Walmart... for jacking up the price of everyday candy they know people will buy to fend off the unruly crowds. As the world's largest retailer you would THINK they would cut pricing or donate candy etc for treats to local parades or impoverished areas.
All of the above boils down to greed in some way. What ever happened to giving for the sake of giving? What ever happened to being excited in anticipation of a great holiday? What ever happened to kids being able to be kids?
Oh that's right that happens at Christmas! Yeah right...
|santaslei
- Netpiddler