Seriously what has happened to Halloween. I remember my parents having to stock up on candy and making mad dashes to the store (being grateful it was open late) as they had run out. I remember kids lining up to wait their turn for me to place that candy bar in their bag and that line wound down the porch stairs and down the walkway a bit. I remember when I was a kid and my siblings and I scampering from house to house throughout the neighborhood. I remember having sooooo much candy my parents would ration it out. We would have over 200 hundred pieces when we got home. Personally I realize now at least half of it would totally vanish from the house ... sometimes saving my parents from that evening dash to the store to replenish supplies. And we were only allowed to Trick or Treat in our immediate neighborhood. Amazing what goodies we accumulated.
I live in Manhattan now and my building has a policy. If you want Trick or Treaters, you sign up on the sheet downstairs by the mail. Otherwise, no one is allowed to bother you. I sign up and about 11 children knock on my door. It is a small building by New York standards and it is just the children of people in the building so there is no expectation of vast numbers.
This year I am staying at my cousin's in the southern part of the United States and I was looking forward to reliving once again those hordes of young ones knocking at the door in those wonderful costumes ... holding up those bags and plastic pumpkin containers in anticipation of a flow of goodies to be captured. My cousin had to visit one of her children in another state at the last moment. I chose to stay behind and pass the candy out. My cousin asked if I would pick some up as she hadn't had opportunity to do so before she left. I did. I got a few bags ... one of this ... one of that ... and one of the other thing. Figuring if there was a crash of Trick or Treaters I would make a mad dash to the store for more. I didn't want to be stuck wiith leftovers.
Well, hmmmm, how do I say this? What happened to Halloween? The Trick or Treaters didn't reach the double digits. I still have a bag of this ... and a bag of that ... and three quartsrs of a bag of the other things left. When it got to be 6 PM and so few had visited the three that dropped by after that each received a handful of candy apiece. The "ooooooooooooo" that emitted from their mouths was actually harmonized. LOL They wouldn't be able to do that again if they tried, I'm sure. I waited for some older children to stop by after dinner. I left the outside lights on so they would know someone was home. No one arrived.
Where, oh where, has Halloween gone?
Dilemna: Chocolate bar type candy does have a limited shelf life. Will these goodies survive to Thanksgiving in edible shape? And if so, has anyone a dessert recipe containing some of this. that and a little bit of the other thing, so I can use my supply up and cause my relatives coming for Thanksgiving to go into a diabetic coma?
