The Death of Trick-or-Treat?

What the heck is going on in Davison? This week's Davison Index advertised trick-or-treating downtown (Friday, Oct. 26. from 4 to 6 p.m.). On Halloween night kids can attend "Safe Night" at the high school gym from 6 to 8:30 p.m. and the local churches usually have "Trunk or Treat" (where kids trick-or-treat from car to car) at the Methodist Church.

When did trick-or-treating become so dangerous that we need "safe" alternatives? In Davison, no less. You can't get much safer! We don't get trick-or-treaters at our apartment so I go to my friends' house in the Manford Heights subdivision. I get the joy of handing out candy while they take their kids out trick-or-treating. We usually have 200-300 trick-or-treaters, cops are highly visibly all over the city, and I have never heard of any thing bad happening -- and I have lived in Davison most of my life. That's 40+ years of safe Halloweens, a good record by anyone's standards.

So why do parents feel they need "safe" alternatives in Davison? Don't they remember the safe, scary fun they had as kids running through the neighborhood on a dark Halloween night? Don't they want their kids to experience that special, magical feeling that only belongs to Halloween? On what other occasion can kids dress up in any costume they want, run from door to door, and get candy to boot? I know it's a different world today and parents need to protect their kids, but they can protect them by trick-or-treating with them (from a safe distance if the kids a too old to want mom or dad to tag along). That way the kids get the best of both worlds: they have a fun and safe Halloween without giving up trick-or-treating.