'Trick or Toast': Is Halloween Becoming Obsolete?

At last week’s village board meeting, 10 costumed residents showed up to protest the shortening of trick-or-treat hours in Oak Lawn. Even though the issue wasn’t on the village board’s agenda, the mayor allowed residents to speak their piece during the public comments portion of the meeting.

Dan Lupesco, a self-described Halloween nut, was moved to start a “Save Halloween in Oak Lawn” Facebook group after learning of a village trustee’s proposal to shave an hour off the trick-or-treat curfew. Residents had hoped to convince trustees and reinstate the hours back to 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., instead of 7 p.m. as it is now.

— a majority of readers wanted the extra hour arguing that many working parents didn’t get home from work until after 6 p.m. By the time parents got their kids into costume, Halloween would be over.

Seems like we could have avoided this whole silly mess with Oak Lawn resident Phil Barry’s Halloween sign that lets the neighborhood know where residents stand on handing out candy. If you don’t care to participate or run out, just flip the sign over to the side that says “no candy.” Barry said he created the sign so that parents didn’t waste their time taking their kids to houses where nobody answered the door. Download the sign and print on your computer printer.

Trick-or-treating as we know it today, has only been around in the United States for about 60 years, about as long as the urban legend of razor blades embedded in apples and poisoned candy bars.

Those of us longing for the sugar-infused Halloween of our childhood have watched the ultimate of all kids’ holidays increasingly come under siege. How we survived trick-or-treating by ourselves after dark or tagging along after an older sibling on his window-soaping escapades without getting accosted by a crazy person is beyond me. We had the same perverts and maniacs 40 years ago that we do today. We just didn’t have the Internet.

What we did have was common sense. As kids, we knew which crabby neighbors’ houses to stay away from, where the crazies lived, and not to eat the homemade popcorn balls until we got home and could inspect them under the light. And we stayed the hell away from houses that passed out the peanut butter kisses in the orange and black wrappers.

From registered sex offenders and schools serving salami and cheese sandwiches instead of candy corn and cupcakes, to concerns about childhood obesity and politically correct “fall fests,” maybe Halloween is becoming obsolete. I know of one lucky second-grade class in Dist. 123 that is having toast at their Halloween party today.

Oak Lawn's trick-or-treat hours are from 3 to 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31.