Being a bit older, I was in my trick-or-treating prime in the late 60's. I lived in Chula Vista, outside San diego. The area now is completely infested with mexican gangs, it is impossible to raise a decent family there. let alone do what I did 40 years ago.
We were poor kids, not hungry or shoeless, just not well-to-do. The nieghborhood wasn't bad- it was mostly lower middle class whites with many mexican families. It is now shot to hell with scumbags, and the flotsam and jetsam of human refuse that results when the fathers of children care little for their offfspring, and mothers continue to get pregnant by an endless stream of jobless, directionless losers.
Anyways, we took not the little plastic pumkins kids have nowadays, but pillowcases. Mom and Dad let us go alone into the nieghborhood to trickor treat. Nowadays, good parents would NEVER let that happen. Back then, it was fine. No syringes, razor blades, robberies, shooting, etc. The worst thing that could happen was your brother beat your ass and take your butterfingers. We got huge piles of candy. As the years went by, halloween candy got smaller and smaller. Now, they call it "fun sizes". What the fuck is fun about a piece of candy that is so small you have to get a microscope to see it?
One year, my Dad came home with a pumkin that was 3 foot tall. i dunno how many hundred pounds it wieghed. We carved it, and it lased until middle of next spring, melting into the next patch of pumpkins. I was the hero of the nieghborhood with the HUGE jack-o lantern.
Curse the people who give out dum dums and candy corn. I don't ever remember using halloween as a cover for mischief; that could happen any night. I was too busy getting candy.
Halloween meant nothing to me during the hurricane years of the 80's. I was to, busy looking for a fix.
The 90's came, and I began to settle down. It was then I realized the joys of giving. Lol, plus, I had an excuse to have lots of candy for my stoned ass to munch on. Soon, my ex and I began to decorate the house and give out candy. We split up, but I still give out candy to the kids. One year, I scored 4 hits of exstacy. I couldn't beleive there was a drug I never tried. So, on Halloween, I ate 2 hits, and passed out candy to the kids. I had SO much fun. I used to go to Wallyworld and buy stacks of hershey bars- regular andy bars- 4 for a buck. Shit, the lil bastards never had it so good at uncle Neals house. I wasn't impressed with the X. Sure, it was OK, but not as trippy as I thought.
Anyways, I used to carve a good jackolantern as well. It was a fun pastime.
Nowadays, Halloween still is kinda fun, but when you see twenty-year olds trick or treating, demanding beer, shotguns going off, shit on fire, busloads of children of dubious nature dropped off in your nieghbor hood bc the people in their own hood are too busy drinking gin and juice and smoking crack to hand out candy to thier own, I wonder if Halloween, my favorite holiday, is shot to shit for good. Just like everything else, it used to be fun, but too many asshole have ruined it.
Now I live in the desert, and the only trick-or-treaters I get are coyotes, asking if my kitty cats can come out and play.