OK, I'll admit it: I was secretly delighted to skip Halloween this year. We always got lots of kids being the only houses in the area, but in the past five years or so it's completely exploded. My neighbors reported that they've seen people actually drive to just trick-or-treat at our block. We're guessing it's the influence of one particular neighbor who's been promoting Halloween with pumpkin pageants and such.

Also, it's interesting to see how the generations change. Back in my cousin's day (this cousin used to live in the house with us), the kids would just go out by themselves without parental supervision for about an hour or two and traverse the neighborhood by themselves. Nowadays not only are the parents there, but they have better costumes than the children.