I haven't been trick-or-treating since high school. Yes, you read that right: high school. I'm no fool. I know a good thing when I see one. One night a year you get to get to wear crazy outfits and makeup (essentially, anything you want) and go to stranger's doors, walk all over their lawn, and not only do you not get yelled at, but if you knock on their door they give you candy. Plus you get to stay out late, even if it’s a school night, usually eating candy.
Trick-or-treating candy usually lasts at least a week, and if it doesn’t, you don't know what you are doing when you go to get it. At any rate, that is a lot of candy. And it’s free. Free candy! From strangers! Because let's face it, if you are accepting candy from a stranger, nine times out of ten it is going to be free and that is part of what makes it so good.
In that light, strangers pretty much always have the best candy because their candy is free. And while I might prefer a snickers to milky way, if the milky way is free? Well which one do you think I'm going for?
Free certainly gives strangers’ candy a leg up, but it is also historically proven that candy from strangers is better.
In the entire - yes, ENTIRE- history of trick-or-treating only two, not two hundred, not two percent, but two individual kids have been harmed from trick-or-treat candy. And, are you ready for it? The contaminated or tampered with confection was given to them by family members. Family Members! Not even an acquaintance. Not even someone you could refer to in the loose definition of stranger or friend. Relatives. One blood, one legally.
Makes all those nights you stayed stuffed away in the school gym getting candy from your teachers or school (which was probably partly funded or donated by your family in one financial way or another) when you could have been out getting free candy, feel like naught, huh?
Here we go into a chicken or the egg type argument. Did only two kids get injured (by their own family!) because of the sudden distrust society gained in each other? Meaning, were all the minutes we waited for mom and dad to inspect our candies, tossing out anything with a ripped wrapper or squashy appearance, legitimate preventative strategies that stopped a world of pain and sickness brought on by tampered treats? Or were they never needed? Did the friendly strangers and all their candy exist always, and would continue to had we never done otherwise?
We may never know.
I suppose we should be all "hooray for safety," and I'm by no means saying you should just go accepting anything from anyone. But facts are facts.
The odds are in.
You are more likely to get better candy from a stranger, both because it is free and because it has a higher likely hood of NOT being tampered with. Especially if you take into account that many parents who inspect candy may actually take a nibble here and there, thereby giving you nibbled on candy instead of the fresh new candy the stranger gave you hours previously.
So what do you do with this new found knowledge? Enjoy it!
Go out this Sunday and reap the benefits. It only happens once a year. I guarantee if you try it next month-- show up on the dude down the block's doorstep dressed like a freak and demand he shower you in confections- -it just isn't going to work the same. You may even be subjecting yourself to physical injury, especially if you threaten to "trick" him: something he would have taken with a shrug and hearty laugh only weeks before.
Sure, some people may give you a dirty look if you are older (In high school I did have the advantage of not looking my age.), but they 7/10 times will still give you free candy. Additionally, if you have kids, train them appropriately so that they may fully reap the benefits of all that free sugar to be gotten. You get to eat all the overflow after all.
And sure, inspect the candy if you want to. It's probably a good idea. There are a bunch of weirdos out there. For all you know the guy dolled up like Frankenstein could actually look like that every day; he is a stranger after all. So sure, why not, be on the safe side. But don't deprive yourself!
The world gets generous on the 31st, that’s once a year, so you better take advantage, cause if you don't, those creepy strangers are just going to keep all that candy for themselves. And how fair is that?
Trick-or-treating candy usually lasts at least a week, and if it doesn’t, you don't know what you are doing when you go to get it. At any rate, that is a lot of candy. And it’s free. Free candy! From strangers! Because let's face it, if you are accepting candy from a stranger, nine times out of ten it is going to be free and that is part of what makes it so good.
In that light, strangers pretty much always have the best candy because their candy is free. And while I might prefer a snickers to milky way, if the milky way is free? Well which one do you think I'm going for?
Free certainly gives strangers’ candy a leg up, but it is also historically proven that candy from strangers is better.
In the entire - yes, ENTIRE- history of trick-or-treating only two, not two hundred, not two percent, but two individual kids have been harmed from trick-or-treat candy. And, are you ready for it? The contaminated or tampered with confection was given to them by family members. Family Members! Not even an acquaintance. Not even someone you could refer to in the loose definition of stranger or friend. Relatives. One blood, one legally.
Makes all those nights you stayed stuffed away in the school gym getting candy from your teachers or school (which was probably partly funded or donated by your family in one financial way or another) when you could have been out getting free candy, feel like naught, huh?
Here we go into a chicken or the egg type argument. Did only two kids get injured (by their own family!) because of the sudden distrust society gained in each other? Meaning, were all the minutes we waited for mom and dad to inspect our candies, tossing out anything with a ripped wrapper or squashy appearance, legitimate preventative strategies that stopped a world of pain and sickness brought on by tampered treats? Or were they never needed? Did the friendly strangers and all their candy exist always, and would continue to had we never done otherwise?
We may never know.
I suppose we should be all "hooray for safety," and I'm by no means saying you should just go accepting anything from anyone. But facts are facts.
The odds are in.
You are more likely to get better candy from a stranger, both because it is free and because it has a higher likely hood of NOT being tampered with. Especially if you take into account that many parents who inspect candy may actually take a nibble here and there, thereby giving you nibbled on candy instead of the fresh new candy the stranger gave you hours previously.
So what do you do with this new found knowledge? Enjoy it!
Go out this Sunday and reap the benefits. It only happens once a year. I guarantee if you try it next month-- show up on the dude down the block's doorstep dressed like a freak and demand he shower you in confections- -it just isn't going to work the same. You may even be subjecting yourself to physical injury, especially if you threaten to "trick" him: something he would have taken with a shrug and hearty laugh only weeks before.
Sure, some people may give you a dirty look if you are older (In high school I did have the advantage of not looking my age.), but they 7/10 times will still give you free candy. Additionally, if you have kids, train them appropriately so that they may fully reap the benefits of all that free sugar to be gotten. You get to eat all the overflow after all.
And sure, inspect the candy if you want to. It's probably a good idea. There are a bunch of weirdos out there. For all you know the guy dolled up like Frankenstein could actually look like that every day; he is a stranger after all. So sure, why not, be on the safe side. But don't deprive yourself!
The world gets generous on the 31st, that’s once a year, so you better take advantage, cause if you don't, those creepy strangers are just going to keep all that candy for themselves. And how fair is that?
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