After Trick Or Treating

Today I read a fact today about trick or treaters. About 36 million American kids between 5 and 14 costumed and indulged in trick or treating last year, according a report released this morning by the U.S. Census Department. That's 93% of all the kids in the country that went trick or treating. But get this. More than half of all U.S. adults below age 40 say they would trick or treat too if the neighbors weren't against it. I like that half. If 60 year olds can still dance in public why can't 40 year olds extort candy from other grown-ups once a year.

Hmmmm I think the adults are as childish as kids are, just afraid to show it. It's a pity we have so many inhibitions that are "age related". It adds up to many inhibitions we repressed. If you need another example to repressed behavior at Halloween try this fact. More than half of all adult in this country admit to hiding a candy treat from a family member to keep and eat for themselves. And, worse, about 1/4 of all adults admit to stealing candy from their child's trick or treat bag. I take some but announce I am doing it.

At least I only steal some of it. No peanuts or nuts of any kind for me. If you bring a trick or treat bag to my house all the peanut butter is safe. I hate that taste. Oh, candy surveys say women prefer chewy candy (they like chewing on things so when they start talking too much we men should hand them a chew candy treat to shut them up) and men like crunch. They both like chocolate the most. when kids are surveyed they rank their favorite trick or treat candy in this order: chocolates, suckers or lollipops, gummy and then gum. Chocolate wins by a big margin .In fact, more chocolate is sold at halloween than at valentine's day. Does that men men prefer ghosts and pumpkins to their lovers?

What candy gets no respect among both kids and adults are those fruit flavored non chocolate treats. I guess kids set their fruit candy aside when they get home from trick or treating. And what do kids do with their candy once they return home after treating? Thirty per cent say they sort it out. I saw Jane and her friends do that many times when they were small and trick or treated. After sorting they made elaborate trades to get rid of the "bad candy' and get the good stuff. Anything left over Dad (me) usually got. It was either that or let it sit on the floor where the trading usually took place. My motto was " Let no candy be floored!", a pathetic excuse for me to eat all that junk myself.

The second most common thing those kids do with their Halloween candy is to eat it.....usually until a parents tells them to stop or the kid begins to go into convulsions. And the last thing they do with if is to stash away their candy to protect it from other kids and family members like me. The odd thing though, with Jane at least, was that after Halloween day and a couple of days thereafter the remaining candy usually is hardly touched, must less eaten. Over the years, I threw out allot of 6 month old Halloween candy because of that.

If all that sugar and chocolate doesn't scare your arteries enough, how about spending next Halloween in some spooky named m but real U.S. cities. Here are some places with names suitable for Halloween.

Transylvania County, N.C. (population 33,090)
Tombstone, Ariz. (population 1,380)
Pumpkin Center, N.C. (population 2,222); and Pumpkin Bend, Ark. (population 276)
Cape Fear in New Hanover County, N.C. (population 18,388); and Cape Fear in Chatham County, N.C. (population 1,323).
Skull Creek, Neb. (population 271)

Don't forget to bring plenty of Halloween candy to help ward off the evil spirits if you ae ever in those towns