I thought for a long time about whether to post this on “06880.” It involves parents who drive their little ghosts, pirates and princesses to neighborhoods where the houses are close together. It’s a classic Westport move: Maximize your trick-or-treating investment by minimizing time spent trekking from door to door.
(I will not even mention that, from the age of about 7 on, my friends and I did all our candy-collecting — and pumpkin-smashing — sans parental supervision. I understand we live in a different century today. Hold your fire.)
Over the past couple of decades, several areas have become designated go-to spots on Halloween. Their fame has spread beyond our borders. Out-of-towners come too, attracted by the Westport cachet as much as the easy pickings.
Long ago, children dressed up in costumes on Halloween, and went door to door asking for candy — in their own neighborhoods. Those were the days!
So when an alert “06880” reader contacted me, I was conflicted. Her message is a good one, but I don’t want to let the cat out of the (candy) bag for anyone who doesn’t already know about these prime local spots.
My solution is to print the reader’s suggestion, but delete any mention of where she goes. I’ll leave the ethics of trick-or-treating outside your neighborhood to you. Yet if you decide that descending on someone else’s road is the right message to send your kid, here’s what one reader wants you to do:
I have been going to [redacted] to trick or treat for many many years. The decorations are amazing, and the people who live there are so wonderfully friendly and giving. They spend a lot of money making Halloween a fantastic night and event for so many of us who head there.
I feel that we should thank this neighborhood for their many years of taking in hundreds of families on that night. Each family planning to go there should buy 2 or 3 bags of candy and hand it to different homeowners. The families would be so thankful, and feel appreciated.
Sounds like a reasonable suggestion. But it also sounds just one step removed from simply buying candy and handing it over to your kid without all the intermediate steps of costume-buying, driving and tromping down the road.