Friday is, of course, Halloween. Have you stocked the bowl with candy for all of those trick-or-treaters? Well, here in Vermont, the answer to that question probably depends on where you live.
If you live outside of a town on a back road, like Deb Rickner, who lives in Monkton, it’s been a while since you’ve seen a trick-or-treater.
“Honestly, I can’t be sure,” she said. “Because we leave candy on the porch and go elsewhere.” One year, Rickner said, her mother stayed home to hand out candy, and only one person came.
Rickner said her kids have always wanted to go where there’s lots of candy. Though her children are too old for trick-or-treating now, in the past they’ve gone to Bristol, which she describes as the classic Halloween experience. "Halloween Central", she says.
Still, the Halloween preparations go on, she buys candy, which her family then eats, and she decorates her house, both inside and out. And she doesn’t begrudge parents for taking their kids to another town.
“It’s a lot of fun to go someplace where you can just run from house to house. And part of the reason for going trick or treating is to see all of the other costumes,” she said.
But what’s it like to live in one of those neighborhoods that hosts scores and scores of those trick-or-treaters? Jeremy Holt was unaware of the trick-or-treating reputation his Middlebury neighborhood had until after he moved there, and when he told his brother who lives in Vancouver about it, his brother had one response.
“He asked, ‘You are giving out full-sized candy bars, right?’ And I said, ‘No, not that I know of.’ And he said, ‘Well, you’ve got to do it right.'" His brother promised to take care of it.
Soon after, a couple hundred full-sized candy bars arrived at Holt’s house. “Everything from like Snickers to Kit Kats, and older stuff like Pop Rocks and Fun Dip,” Holt explained. “Believe it or not, within 10 minutes, parents were coming by and saying, ‘You’re the most popular house on the block, just so you know.” They gave out every single piece.
This year, Holt’s brother tripled the amount of candy he sent. “He said as long as we live on South Street, he’s going to keep being the benefactor for this operation.”
