Best Halloween Strategy

[Stan Austin]

Trick or Treating only lasts a few hours. This was an early test of maximizing ones efforts for the greatest returns.

(that's adult speak for gettin' the most candy the quickest)

We used our collective kid wisdom to 1) go to the streets that historically had the best candy and, 2) go for high volume-streets with lots of doubles.

What was your strategy?

Stan (thinking of gettin me some candy on Halloween night) Austin

[Corey Rossen]

Run, run, run. When that slowed me down I pulled out my cape, regardless of the costume-you always have to have a cape, and soared.
One trick I do remember was that even though Lake Avenue homes gave out the best candy it was also the greatest distance between front doors. Also, always stand on Clifton and look up the street, not enough porch lights meant move on to the next street.

Corey

[Stan Austin]

look up the street, not enough porch lights meant move on to the next street.

shrewd and effective

[Matt Jones]

We used our collective kid wisdom to 1) go to the streets that historically had the best candy and, 2) go for high volume-streets with lots of doubles.

What was your strategy?

Quality over quantity! We went for the streets with the best candy. In our neighborhood that meant focusing on Arthur and Lakeland south of Madison.

[Stan Austin]

Here's another element---

Was it the costume-- charming the "mark" ?

Or did it just boil down to aggressive panhandling?

[Corey Rossen]

It seemed everytime I covered my face, the better I did!

[Will Brown]

We always just took our kids around the local neighborhood. Lately, I have noticed cars pulling of I 90, parking, and discharging loads of kids, so we must have a generous neighborhood.

My son made his own costume one year from a few cardboard boxes and some flexible dryer ducting I had in the basement. He became a robot. It was a great costume, but it backfired, because at each house he had to wait around while whoever answered the door gathered the rest of the family to see his costume, so he got a lot less treats than usual. We made him whole with a subsequent visit to Heinens'.

[Tim Liston]

Will….

Yours is the opposite of my experience. One year, over a decade ago, my kids were in prime trick-or-treat years. They were dressed up really cute and all but it was the year that I dressed up in drag and I went REALLY all out. Lipstick, gold dress, fake boobs, wig, heels, purse. I had it all. I think I even wore panties (picture that Stan). Not only was I slow from house to house (did I say heels?) but many of the neighbors said “hey girls I wanna take your picture WITH YOUR DAD….”.

Thank goodness it was before digital cameras or those things would be on somebody's Facebook page….

At any rate my girls say to this day it was the best Halloween the ever had. Apparently they got extras at every stop.

Happy Halloween to you all. I will be spending the day in Toledo with oldest daughter Mattie in her first MAC soccer tournament game. Time flies….

PS My kids always got way more candy than I would ever let them eat. RRUMC took the rest as donations. Thankfully….

[Jim O'Bryan]

Boy all of this strategery (thank you GWB) and it seemed a little slow last night.
We normally do over 300 things, bet we barely hit 200.
Anyone else?

.

[Danielle Masters]

We did not hand out a ton of candy, I was surprised we didn't go through more, I think maybe the cold kept some away. My kids though came home with a decent amount. They all went five different directions. My daughter and a friend walked in Clifton Park, my teenager (yes he dressed up) and a couple of friends walked Arthur south of Madison like he always does, another son walked Woodward with friends, another walked Webb and Granger, and I took my youngest out in our neighborhood (Granger and side streets). At the end of the night my 8 year old had the most candy. He got a ton of compliments on his costume and on how polite he was. So I decided last night the best strategy was to be young, cute and polite, pretty typical of life.

[Jim Marquard]

we had a somewhat busy night. handed out over 200 pcs of candy.
most kids were nice and polite. some kids thought they would be a smart ass by saying -
smell my feet give me something good to eat - i did not give them candy, unless they said
trick or treat. we had about a dozen cars stop at the corner and dropped
off hoards of kids - makes me wonder if they were lakewood residents or from other
cities. ran out of candy at 7:20.
some things that bothered me -
parents carrying bags asking for candy - most saying they have a sick kid at home - maybe true - but i am not sure i believe them as they walk away laughing.
parents with infants asking for candy - really? - the baby is going to chew on a candy bar?
my favorite - a kid smoking a flavored cigar going house to house trick or treating -
he held his breathe when he came to my house , then as he walked away he blew the
smoke out - if i would have seen/or known he was smoking - no candy! oh well.
otherwise a fun night handing out of candy.

[Brian Pedaci]

No costume? Over 16? Holding three bags? One piece of generic dollar-store gum for you (the wrapper just says "GUM"). Real candy is for real trick-or-treaters.

[ryan costa]

I turned up my stereo so I wouldn't hear any kids.

I was going to go out for a drive, but I didn't want to run anyone over so i stayed home.