Aaron Adams’s Blowhard Blog

I’m not someone who likes kids much. I can’t remember a meal in a restaurant without a screaming kid, and every misbehaved kid in town always seems to be at the grocery. However, I do like Halloween and trick-or-treat, and I’m happy to give away candy (the good stuff, not the crap) to kids when they come to my door.

I remember, as a kid in the mid-80s, waiting in line at some houses to get candy. I remember seeing a parade of other kids on the sidewalk on either side of the street, and having to walk around some of them to get to the next house. I remember houses really done up with great, creative decorations. Some houses ran out of candy because there were so many kids. Beggar’s night was an event that I tried to participate in even after it was obvious I was too old for it.

Tonight was beggar’s night here in Bellbrook, Ohio. My neighborhood was practically empty, with the exception of some groups of three or four kids that would occasionally stop by. I know there are kids in this neighborhood because I hear their noise outside the rest of the year, and I’ve caught a few of them playing in the mud pile the city left in my yard. I get the distinct impression, not only from my own admittedly anecdotal experience, but from the anecdotal experience of others, that beggar’s night isn’t as popular as it once was.

This morning on the way to work, as a news item, I heard that the local sheriff had a website set up where you could check to see where the sex offenders are in your neighborhood in preparation for taking the kids out to trick-or-treat. I’m suspicious of the presumption that these sex offenders are just itching to drag the kids at their door into the house and rape the bejesus out of them. I realize that some convicted sex offenders are still dangerous (Why are they out of jail?), but are there any recorded incidences in this area of those offenders using beggar’s night as a harvesting opportunity for their perverse desires? I remember, as a kid, the fire department setting up an x-ray machine where parents could take collected candy to search for razor blades and needles. Was any incident of booby-trapped candy ever recorded? I remember persistent stories of people injecting detrimental substances into treats. Was any child here ever poisoned by tainted treats? Over the past several years, I’ve heard the assertion that allowing children to participate in beggar’s night was implicit approval of Satanism of some kind. Are they serious?

In all of these cases, none of these crimes occurred anywhere near here. In fact, in all reported cases of candy tampering nationwide, the offense was committed by a kid’s family member, not a stranger. And I’m completely unaware of any trick-or-treater being sexually abused in this area. It’s logical to assume that, if such a thing occurred, the news media here would go crazy with the story.

So what happened to Halloween? Has sex predator paranoia caused parents to keep the kids inside? Has the thought of deadly candy kept the kids at home? Do some people really think that Halloween is approval of evil and they forbid their children to participate? Or is it that kids have simply changed, and they’re not as interested as they were two decades ago?

I don’t know the answer. I hope that maybe I just live in a place where the child density isn’t enough to make beggar’s night worthwhile. But I have to wonder if some element of media-fueled sensationalism and paranoia has ruined what used to be a fun holiday.