Does anybody drive their kids to different (better?) neighborhoods to do their trick-or-treating?
We’re in a suburban college town. One year, we thought that driving over to an upper class neighborhood might be a good idea. Wrong. Bigger houses and yards mean that you cover more space for less reward. Last year, we achieved a high yield of Tier 1 candy from hitting a newer, tightly packed middle class housing addition. This year, we stayed on the block with friends. Because of the high college student population, the yield was lower (in the candy sense; my son did score some cash from a candy-less college student when he crashed their Halloween porch party) but the experience was better overall for us because we got to interact with friends and neighbors – people we knew. The whole experience reminded me that Halloween isn’t just about kids getting candy – it’s an opportunity to socialize with the neighbors and enjoy the one night of the year when people tend to welcome strangers.
My neighborhood is a bit of a “destination”, too. In addition, a nearby church puts out a table with hot coffee and such for the parents who are tagging along with their kids, which is a great idea. Some Minneapolis neighborhoods have a lot of apartments in security buildings–it might be easier to come to a neighborhood with little houses in neat rows.
