# What about Halloween scares you?



## Zepp (Oct 27, 2004)

This may not directly qualify as "self-defense," but I figure it's close.

Halloween is just one of those great American traditions, isn't it?  I think the unique way we tend celebrate Halloween here sometimes brings a set of concerns with it that we don't normally face on other holidays.  Whether you're going to a party full of adults, taking the kids trick-or-treating, or staying at home, watching movies and scaring trick-or-treaters, you can probably find something to be careful about on October 31 that doesn't particularly worry you at other times.  

Examples: Parents worry about children trick-or-treating.  Some neighborhoods suffer yearly vandalism.  People wearing masks lose their inhibitions and do things they normally would be too scared to do.

When I was a kid, my mom was fanatical over inspecting every single piece of candy that I brought home, as though our neighbors were out to poison us or hide razor blades in chocolate bars.

Now, the college town I live nearby, Isla Vista, is famous/notorious for the yearly Halloween weekend insanity.  I've decided to avoid it this year.  (I've had enough of that kind of fun for now.)

So, what about this coming Halloween scares/worries you personally?  And how will you be dealing with it?


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## Andrew Green (Oct 27, 2004)

Definately the cross dressing dogs.


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## Scout_379 (Oct 27, 2004)

"Friends" with eggs and a slingshot


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## gmunoz (Oct 27, 2004)

I gotta admit it doesn't scare me personally.  What does concern me is the whack jobs out there!  In our church we have an alernative to our church children and their friends.  We provide entertainment, candy, food, music, games & prizes.  Would love to block off the city streets around our block and do an all out shindig one day.


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## Zepp (Oct 27, 2004)

:lol: Yeah, those dogs would scare me too.


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## Ceicei (Oct 28, 2004)

gmunoz said:
			
		

> Would love to block off the city streets around our block and do an all out shindig one day.


Our neighbors do hold yearly Summer BBQs and block off the streets. We all just gather together for a huge potluck and chat. Let the kids run together at the park playground next to the BBQ potluck. It is kind of nice not to have to deal with traffic in the streets for a couple of hours. 

Considering how people have become more worried about Halloween safety lately...you do have some points. However, you gave an interesting idea for a Halloween shindig.... I've heard some neighborhoods would gather in a parking lot and put treats in the open trunks of their cars. The kids there in the parking lot would go "trunk-n-treating". The idea is that everyone is in eye sight of each other and get to meet/talk together. There is usually a table in the middle serving hot chocolate and hot apple cider. Sometimes scones are also served.

This may be a different alternative than just sending the kids out to wander the streets out of sight trick-o-treating.


- Ceicei


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## Shodan (Oct 28, 2004)

My main Halloween fears have to do with the crazies out there.  The people who think it is fun to egg and key cars and vandalize your house, decorations, etc.  I don't worry about my son trick-or-treating yet as he is still very young and we only go to about 5 houses- all neighbors we know.  This year, we might go to the local church Halloween festival- it is catered by Albertson's grocery store and there are booths with games and activities for the kids.  They trick-or-treat at the various booths also.  I think the atmosphere in general will be safer.

  As for what to do about my fears.....well- there's not a whole lot we can do.  Move the cars into the driveway off the road and hope they only egg the back of the cars if at all.  Hopefully they will be less brave if the cars are within sight and in our driveway than when they are on the curbside.

  It's a shame we have to worry about this type of thing every year....but what do ya do?  At least it is only one night of the year.

  Hope you all have happy and safe Halloweens.

  :asian:  :karate:


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## Drac (Oct 28, 2004)

Everything that Zepp said scares me...


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## BrandiJo (Oct 28, 2004)

oh college guys on holloween scare me :-/ i have no idea what to expect


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## Zepp (Oct 29, 2004)

BrandiJo said:
			
		

> oh college guys on holloween scare me :-/ i have no idea what to expect



Don't wear scanty costumes, and they'll (we'll) all pay more attention to the girls who are looking for attention.

And if you're at a party, just follow the usual rule of pouring your own drinks, and not letting friends push you into drinking more than you know you should.  (But this one should always apply.)

We're not _that_ scary, are we? :uhyeah:


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## BrandiJo (Oct 29, 2004)

for a freashman in college(me) yeah but i dont know maybe its just me


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## mj-hi-yah (Oct 29, 2004)

There is a new thing going around my neighborhood and it is called something like "getting struck by a Halloween Spook".  Basically you find on your doorstep a note from an unknown spook and candy and you are supposed to put the note in your window showing you've been struck and then strike three other houses in the same way.  It's a really cute idea but it worries me that it will really catch on because any weirdo can leave tainted candy on your doorstep.  I think it goes against everything I try to teach my kids about safety.  I hate feeling this way because I am usually the last one to leave the party, but with the way things are in the world today - people taking advantage of the unsuspecting is what scares me most!

MJ :uhohh:


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## loki09789 (Oct 29, 2004)

I have to agree with the trend in posts.  It isn't the 'spooks' or 'ghosts' that scare me so much as the 'real monsters' that can take advantage of the accessibility and confusion to do some damage...of course that inspired the urban legends of the 'lone babysitter phone call' and the 'halloween' type slasher movies and the 'Freddy' series so I guess it is the 'new spooks/ghosts' idea that I think about.

I find it TOTALLY ironic that a custom/ritual that has it's origins in making sacrifices to evil spirits and dressing up to disguise yourself as an evil spirit so they don't eat you up is falling on SUNDAY - the traditional Christian holy day of the week.....

My son will be going to church in the morning and then paganizing in the evening  ( I am speaking lightly here, don't get in an uproar...or do we should hear roars on halloween ).


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## Lisa (Oct 29, 2004)

It has come to a point where my daughter's school is not handing out UNICEF boxes to the kids to take around door to door collecting money.  They are worried about the safety issue, apparently some kids have been "mugged" for their money on Halloween night.  Instead the school has asked that we send money in with the kids as a donation.  What a sad thing really.  UNICEF relies heavily on the money collected in those boxes.  I wonder how many other schools are adopting this new rule and how much this will effect the overall amount UNICEF gets.  

Yup, times they are a changing, and where they are going is what really scares me.

Lisa


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## mj-hi-yah (Oct 29, 2004)

My new Halloween avatar scares me! :uhyeah:


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## Fight with attitude (Oct 29, 2004)

mj-hi-yah said:
			
		

> My new Halloween avatar scares me! :uhyeah:


LOL It took me a while to realize who was in that avatar...Next time get an avatar of me kicking Andrew's ***.


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## lonecoyote (Oct 29, 2004)

What scares me about Halloween is how many people are overscared of it and overreact to it. There are not a bunch of real life satan worshipers or pagans or whatever that will use halloween to entice your children ,friends and neighbors into being sacrificed, or give their souls to Satan or whatever. There is a conservative church in my town that has a "hell house" , meant to illustrate what can happen to you if you don't follow their party line I guess. If you get toilet papered or step in some flaming dog doo, just live with it, and don't call the freaking FBI, they're being kids, they already live in an overregimented world completely unlike the one we grew up in. I've done worse and so have you. Halloween is great. Also, one time I remember one late halloween night at work, me and one other man were the only people in the place. He was from a different culture and had recently moved to the U.S. He asked me what Halloween was and so I looked at him in a grim and intense way and said "It is the night when the evil dead rise and walk the earth" Scared the poo out of him.


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## chinto01 (Oct 29, 2004)

i think the thing that scares me is when people go to open their doors without checking first. What also scares me is that parents let their pre-teen children go out alone and they get struck by a car. We have had this happen twice in 2 years in my parents neighborhood.


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## mj-hi-yah (Oct 29, 2004)

Fight with attitude said:
			
		

> LOL It took me a while to realize who was in that avatar...Next time get an avatar of me kicking Andrew's ***.


LOL send me the photos dude!


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## Darksoul (Oct 30, 2004)

-Halloween will always be my favorite day of the year; its the one I connected to the most growing up. Maybe its because I'm a goth...no, the question isn't what scares me, its what saddens me. As some have mentioned, things were a lot different back in the day. Ever since 9-11 we have seen a dramatic decrease in the number of trick-or-treaters that stop by. Granted, numbers were dropping before that, but I'm sure that had to do with the changing make-up of the neighborhood. And people are worried about possible predators and poisoned candy. btw, most pagans don't even believe in the exisitence of Satan. Evil, yes, but the devil, no. 

-I look forward to Halloween every year. This year will be the first I've had off second half of the day in 4 years. That means sleep, costume, hand candy out to the kids, (which I absolutely love doing), followed by a dinner party and off to the local goth club. The reasons to participate on Halloween have changed throughout the years, and most people have their own things they like to do, but its a wonderful time to celebrate life, the changing of the leaves, the cool, brisk fall days. Maybe thats what I getting at; the need to celebrate life more. And dressing up is fun to;-)


A---)


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## Maltair (Oct 30, 2004)

Nalia said:
			
		

> UNICEF boxes
> 
> Yup, times they are a changing, and where they are going is what really scares me.
> 
> Lisa


I completely forgot about those! Havn't seen them since I was a kid. 
I remember being in the 4-5th grade and going out with just me and my little brother. We would come back and my folks would go thru each piece of candy. We would be gone for hours, hitting 3-4 neigborhoods. It's deffinantly not like that now and I fear what the world will be like for my kids kids.

Other fears, lighting 3 cigerattes with 1 match, very bad juju on the night the dead wonder. And homemade plum wine, just bad juju period.


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## TonyM. (Oct 31, 2004)

I'm afraid of falling off the roof with the garden hose that I use to squirt the little B... darlings that come to soap my windows.


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## someguy (Oct 31, 2004)

I fear it's almost over already.


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## Dr. Kenpo (Oct 31, 2004)

Dennis Conatser.:anic:


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## Jay Bell (Oct 31, 2004)

> *What scares me about Halloween is how many people are overscared of it and overreact to it.*



Bravo!  Unfortunately, the majority of fears concerning Halloween stem from people believing urban legends..


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