Alan Zabaro wrote:

> Well, we usually get over 100 easily (~120 in years when 10/31 and 11/1 are
> both weekdays, closer to 160 - 200 when both are weekend), and that's if
> we stop giving stuff out by 10 PM! But this year was incredibly quiet; maybe
> 60-75 kids came by from when my father started giving out candy (4:30?) until
> we closed up at 9 PM. Very unusual.

Oh my gosh!
What kind of neighborhood do you live in? Lots of apartments?
When I was a kid, we had a lot of trick or treaters, because we lived in L.A. and

there were huge apartment complexes behind our houses. But it seems like there has

been less and less kids out, as the years have gone on.

Thousand Oaks is the second or first safest city with a population over 100,00 in

the USA, they trade the title with Simi Valley most years....so it can't be fear
that keeps them inside. I kind of blame it on the groups of Halloween Haters that

try to organize other kinds of daytime events to keep the kids from going out at
night. Kinda sad....
It's good to know that at least some kids get to still have fun.

One year, our next door neighbor went all out...hoping to attract kids to our
neighborhood. He is a Special Effects coordinator for the movies, does all kinds of

action stuff, big movies like Titanic (his crew actually broke the 3/4 sized ship

in half and sunk it..took a year and a half) and all the Die Hard and Terminator
films (he is working on Spiderman now). So when he did it, he did it BIG. We had a

huge cave that people had to walk through to get from their house to our house,
complete with animatronic ghosts and caskets that opened with zombies jumping
out....great stuff. Barely anyone showed up...it was really sad!

> With a turnout this small, I couldn't realistically expect to see any anime
> characters (unless you count that one Power Puff Girl). Well, looks like we
> have a bunch of candy left to deal with...

Yeah, we have a ton left. We always overbuy...just in case.
Good thing we buy the stuff we like....

Kath