I can remember the old days. The best years of my childhood were growing up in a great neighborhood in Tampa in the Late 60s. I had a group of neighborhood friends, and my first girlfriend.
We were ten years old. Trick or treat was a big deal, and we used pillow cases, knew all the neighbors. We mowed their laws, raked the leaves, edged their walks, and picked up trash that blew in their lawns if we saw it when we walked past. They were our neighbors after all.
Halloween was a big deal for us, we started deciding costumes in early September, making plans in late September, and working on them in early October. By the last week in October, we were vibrating with excitement. My dad would sit on the porch IN costume, back lit by glowing pumpkins, and hand out the candy... mom kept the coffee coming and laughed at dad's antics.
Then a new twist was added. They built the projects about a mile away, across the interstate. GANG kids came into the neighborhood on Halloween that following year. They roamed through OUR neighborhood that first Halloween, wearing only dime store masks, egging houses, throwing TP in trees, and slashing tires on cars.
They assaulted the young costumed Trick or Treat-ers and took their bags of candy, sending a couple to the ER for stitches.
When they reached OUR house to start their vandalism, dad shot off the porch, accompanied by our Shepherd, and they fled, laughing. They continued through the neighborhood, always ahead of the PD Units looking for them, disappearing into the alleys and the dark.
The next year, the planning began again in September, but wasn't filled with excitement. It was filled with concern for our baby brothers and sisters, and included parents.
As an adult with young children, I was blessed to begin their Trick or Treating on base, about the safest environment a child could hope for. They trick or treated in the various base housing - still accompanied by mom or dad, while the other parent did candy duty at Quarters.
Our young kids never trick or treated alone, the childhood incident always haunted me. My teens were allowed, but cautioned that getting into pranks and mischief would have DIRE consequences.