Halloween

So I read this on Susan Blackmore's blog today. I found it interesting, especially because i spent early halloween night in a bar drinking pitchers of beer with bridget. so it was broad daylight...not even dusk, and i think i was witnessing peak point of trick or treating here in pittsburgh. it was kids in costumes with thier parents, trick or treating from business to business. major wtf here. so i was complaing about that the whole night...telling johanna at home not to give out candy to people who were asking for it before it got dark...i was in a real sour mood. i think we came up with a couple of reasons why this was what halloween was like now...things like the internet stalker scare....parental fear...stuff like that, but i was still really upset anyway. i also couldnt really figure out if what i was looking at was REALLY the way halloween was these days. after i went home i didnt get a single trick or treater, so i have no proof that people were out after dark asking for candy. but i really think the whole holiday of halloween is lost big time. i mean i guess it was lost when we were young too. to me it just seems like a great holiday...especially when you look at the phrase "trick of treat?" so...my grandmother interpreted that as "do a trick and you will get a treat"....in this case a trick was some kind of talent....so for us we would start halloween by dressing up and going over to nanas house around dusk....we would do a little show and then get a treat...she also made consistently amazing jack-o-lanterns. but i think that is a rare way of looking at the phrase "trick or treat?"....i mean....its a question right? im not really a holiday historian, but it seems like the proposition is "give me a treat or i am going to do something to you or your home"....i think we all have it backwards. i think that halloween should be much more threatening. it should be a night when adults buy shitloads of candy and treats and gangs of children fill backpacks with gasoline, knives and pipe-bombs. the kids should form huge groups...a force strong enough to threaten a small police force, and take to the streets...going door to door and demanding candy....if they dont get it you are in for some shit...parents shouldnt be afraid of what is going to happen to their children on halloween night....children should be afraid of what could happen to their parents....did they buy enough candy. will they be able to get to the door on time. instead what he have now is parents escorting their kids around in broud daylight, watching them ask for candy. no wonder i was so mad at halloween.