tin can night

[Aaron Coffee]

Has anybody else ever heard of "tin can night". I went to grade school and junior high in a little town (population around 700), they trick or treated the night before Halloween (called it tin can night)and then went out on Halloween a bigger town. Any time I mention it at work they look at me like I'm crazy(ok crazier). The funny thing the town that had tin can night is only about 40 miles away, and still nobody has ever heard of it.
Thanks
Aaron Coffee
I went to work today dressed as a disgruntled employee and nobody noticed the difference.

[mb82]

Thats a new one to me. I grew up hearing about mischief night which was the night before Halloween.

[Mike C.]

Aaron,

Never heard of it? Just Halloween. What was it's purpose ? Just to get two nights of candy and goodies?

What is strange to me, and this is thread drift, so please forgive me, but when we were kids, there were a number of older folks that used to make homemade candy and popcorn balls to give out to the kids. Can you imagine the uproar that would cause nowdays? My dad would spend two or three nights before Halloween popping popcorn until he could fill a washtub and then he would butter his hands and make popcorn balls which he wrapped in wax paper and gave out to the kids. Sorry, just thinking back.

Thread drift off/

[Bill Fernandez]

Not to many trick a treaters now days not like there used to be

[kajamelu4]

Uncle Mike-
Thanks for the memories! There was a lady in our small town that was famous for popcorn balls on Halloween.(We went to church with her.) It was one of my favorite stops. That memory was shut away in the closet of my mind. Thanks for opening the door.

Karol

[doug hodder]

Nowadays...a lot of shopping centers set up a Trick or Treat afternoon for after school. I had a ton of them come into the store >200...a lot would just come in and hold out a bag with a dumb expectant look on their face...I had to ask them what they wanted and encourage them to say the words, like it was a major effort to say "trick or treat" ...and hate to say this...but unfortunately...about only 25% said thanks! and it wasn't crappy candy! Some of my customers also commented on the lack of manners with the kids!

Next year...I'm handing out used Q-tips and ketchup packs from McDonalds!! but that is just a Calif. experience...others may vary...Doug

[toypusher]

Doug,

I went to a friends house for the 'trick or treat' event last night and we pretty much got the same thing in probably close to 50% of the kids. Most had parents or guardians with them that made the kids say the words and also say thank you afterwords. We were pleasantly surprised that quite a few of the teen/pre teens that were alone, did say trick or treat and thank you.

[Tcurr]

I noticed the lack of polite as well. But thats not the kids fault.

[Gambam]

I had a completely diff experiance. All the Kids (at least 99%) we got said thank you. Seemed to depend on the age if they said trick or treat, the little ones knew to say "fank joo" the 5-9 yr olds were about 50% to say T or T and the 10 and older were about 75%.

We deff get less kids, but for us it has to do with the day they do trick or treat. All the local towns used to hold theirs on 10/31 but Columbus would hold a "begers night" usually the Wed/Thur before Halloween. So we would get all the out of town kids on our night, then they could still do their own town on 10/31. Now Cbus changed to 10/31, so we seem to only get our own neighbor kids.

[Miriam C.]

The kids here are almost always polite. Course our houses are so far apart that the parents escort the kids in cars/trucks and with even some of the preteens they escort to the yard. And boy did it get cold. Our mall and some of the bigger churches had events too.

[Dewayne_Mellen]

My daughter remembers to say thank you at almost every house. The only ones that she forgot at gave her a handfull of candy instead of one piece. I think it caused her brain to short circuit.

Her first Hollowean she had problems with saying trick or treat. She started going up to houses and saying "give me candy". (that didn't last long)

[Jst83]

I think costumes have gone down hill also I got a lot of older kids with there face painted white or just a mask and I even got one kid in no costume at all. said he was a student. Kind of sad not sure if I'll do the candy thing next year If nobody wants to put out the effort for a costume why should I bother.
Or I could go with Doug's idea used Qtips and ketchup packets, I should start saving now.
OK I'll get of my soap box now

[kajamelu4]

We live over 7 miles from the nearest town. We had 2 trick-or-treaters. That's 2 more than usual. Thank goodness I had some really good candy for them. I had picked up a box of creepy treats for my niece, and had some toe nails (runts), bumpy warts (nerds), sticky snot (sweetart squeez), and some toad dust (fun dip). If you drive all the way out here, you should at least get something good!
The costumes were good too. A vampire and Batman!

Karol

[swissarmygirl]

I lived in a town in Pennsylvania where they would designate a night other than October 31 for trick or treating. Never heard it called tin can night though, and it never made much sense to me.

I live in garden apartments, which is easy pickin's for trick-or-treaters, so we are usually swarmed, but there did not seem to be as many kids this year.

I do reverse trick-or-treating. I go out with my neighbors and our kids and take my candy with me. I hand it out on the road. No problems with thank you's. A few of the real little ones just kinda stared at me all speechless. I can't imagine why.......

[sledge]

I never heard of Tin Can Night.......... but kids from ( here ) are very good at saying please and thank you, but........... we have a few moved in from other places who are not quite the same. and they brought their guns with them.... untill this happened you could let your kids take candy from anyone.... now , you have to be careful.